POLICE have pledged to continue their crackdown on violent crime after seeing a successful drop in incidents this summer.

Operation Sunshine saw police step up patrols in crime hotspots in Southend through the summer, which reduced the number of incidents throughout June, July and August by 1,557 – or 10.7 per cent.

The operation was in response to figures which showed crime rocketed 15 per cent during the summer months last year.

Chief Insp Simon Anslow, who is district commander for Southend, said: “The figures are really encouraging.

After we had been seeing a significant rise in crime to be able to turn it on its head and bring it back down shows we are prioritising our resources in the right areas through the summer.

“Effectively hundreds fewer people have needed to call us and have been free to enjoy the summer in Southend.”

In the year to date, the amount of cases solved have also increased by nearly 30 per cent.

But there is still work to be done to reduce violent crime.

Mr Anslow added: “The spike of violent crime we had on Sunday mornings has now gone as a result of the policing patrol work we have done. We are not seeing the same amount of violent crime overnight.

But we are still trying to understand the general rise in violent crime.

“Southend is compared to 13 similar districts and they are all seeing a general rise in violent crime.”

Police are now hoping to bolster nighttime patrols by having eight officers on duty, following the new policing model which has returned more officers to local policing.

They also hope to build on this year’s success by identifying antisocial behaviour hotspots to stop issues before they require police intervention.

Mr Anslow said: “This success has informed us for next year. When I came here I had a clear strategy and had to implement it very quickly. Now we know it works, we are going to be able to do more work and planning with wider partnerships to sort problems out before they start.”

THE SUMMERTIME STATISTICS

June 4,226 incidents - 234 fewer than 2013 - 5% reduction

July 4,575 incidents - 627 fewer than 2013 - 12% reduction

August 4,230 incidents - 706 fewer than 2013 - 14% reduction

Total 13,031 incidents - 1,557 fewer than 2013 - 10.7% reduction