Portswood has 6 reports of violence a week

Data collected from a Soton Tab Freedom of Information request has revealed that there has been a total of 346 reports of violence in the Portswood district of Southampton since January 2015.

Between 1st January 2015 and 29th February 2016 there has been a total of 346 reported incidents of violence against a person in Portswood, with an average of 6.2 incidents a week.

Out of the 346 incidents, 44%  were reported as ‘with injury’, with the other 56%, although still being reported as violence, being ‘without injury’.

The report also shows that violence in the area has increased by 42% over the last two years, with 87 more reported incidents of violence in 2015 than the previous year.

Interestingly, when comparing reported incidents from January and February 2016 with the same time in 2015, the numbers are exactly the same, with 52 reports of violence across the two months. Suggesting that violence has stayed the same or is possibly still increasing in the area.

It has also been recently disclosed that there is a report of anti-social behaviour more than once a day in Portswood suggesting that anti-social and violent crime is prevalent within the area.

Although it is reported that the local police are making a concerted effort to tackle anti-social behaviour as a whole, as well as drug use in the area, violence in particular has not been singled out. It is also unclear how many of these incidents were involving students.

Fortunately, there has also been no reported homicides in Portswood since September 2013.

On their website, the Hampshire Constabulary for Portswood states that “The Neighbourhood Policing Teams are focussed on identifying and reducing threat, risk and harm within the community, identifying persistent offenders and also tackling anti-social behaviour.”