Town night assaults down on last year

Friday 1st April 2005, 12:00AM BST.

THE number of assaults after dark in the pubs, clubs and on the streets of St Helier has fallen compared with last year’s figures.

Statistics released today for the first quarter of 2005 show that there were 14 serious assaults this year compared with 17 in the same period last year.

The number of more minor, common assaults fell from 62 to 52.

Police chief Graham Power said that the reduction in the figures was in part due to new computer technology, which allowed officers to target hot spots at times when disorder was most likely.

The Easter weekend was identified as one of those weekends and an extra 18 officers were put out on the beat as part of Operation Peacekeeper.

‘We cannot put extra officers out like that every weekend, but we do try to predict the busiest times,’ said Mr Power.

‘It is targeted policing, it is about asking where we can put officers to make the biggest difference.’

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