Thames Valley Police confirm 16,000 arrests and 711 deaths in six months

Thames Valley Police has released new data showing that 711 people died tragically over a six-month period.

New statistics from the force, which covers April 2023 to September 30 2023, shows 16,000 people were arrested during the same time period.

During those six months 500,000 people contacted the police in the policing area.

Also, Thames Valley Police located 3,290 missing people.

Over the same time period police attended 3,228 road traffic collisions.

In total, 1,007 arrests were made relating to drink driving, 1,220 for driving whilst distracted by a mobile phone and 1,862 people were arrested for not wearing a seatbelt.

Thames Valley Police has revealed that distraction offences such as driving while using a mobile phone, have increased by 78 per cent, while seatbelt offences are up by 72 per cent when compared with the same six month period of last year.

A total of 48,794 speeding offences were recorded by officers in camera vans, while 38,821 were detected by cameras.

Detection of speeding offences has increased by 91 per cent, according to police data, while fatal collisions are down slightly on this time last year and down even further on the previous year.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Bettington, of the Joint Roads Policing Unit said: “These numbers highlight the vast amount of work our roads policing officers carry out across the Thames Valley every day.

“We will continue to work together with partners across a range of agencies to find ways to reduce and prevent offending. Everyone should be able to use our roads in a safe and healthy way. We will educate where appropriate to prevent re-offending and explain where there is an opportunity to encourage safer use of our roads.”

Thames Valley Police has revealed that 28 per cent of arrests made by the force relate to domestic violence.

April – September this year saw a 22 per cent increase in charges for rape and an 11 per cent increase in charges for other sexual offences compared to the same period in 2022.

Chief Constable Jason Hogg said: “In the last six months, we have responded to more than half a million contacts from the public and attended 81,143 incidents, which represents an incredible demand on our 8,400 officers, staff and volunteers.

“I’m very proud of the job we do in keeping our communities safe across the Thames Valley, not only by responding to emergencies but also disrupting and preventing crime across the three counties.

“Increased rape offence charges and domestic abuse arrests show how our proactive work targeting these crime types is showing real progress.

“Behind each of these numbers are the victims of crime, and a priority for the force over the coming year is to place them at the centre of our service and work tirelessly to improve our service to all.” 

The police force data can be seen below:

-507,833 total contacts from the public – up 2 per cent on the same period in 2022.

-220,352 calls to 999, 231,602 calls to 101; and 55,879 online reports.

-3,307 missing people found, 384 of these were deemed high risk and 1685 were children.

-81,143 incidents attended.

-16,239 arrests.

-393 knife crime arrests.

-66 rape offence charges.

-4616 domestic abuse arrests.