Fear of crime is “inversely proportionate” to actual offences in the area, the Herts Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) revealed at a recent public meeting.
Speaking at the Harpenden Society’s first gathering of the Autumn season last Tuesday at Park Hall, David Lloyd said the areas with the lowest amounts of crime had the greatest worry they would fall victim to it.
Town Mayor Councillor Rosemary Farmer had told the PCC that if there was a crime, it was often distorted and people thought there was a huge crimewave underway.
She added: “I do wonder if more can be done to actually communicate to residents, not just in Harpenden, so that we deal with the fear of crime rather than actual crime.”
Mr Lloyd said: “It is the most difficult thing that I have to try and do.”
The Tory official explained that on a recent visit to a Women’s Institute he asked members how many burglaries they thought there were locally. One woman said she believed there were 1,000 burglaries in St Albans daily, compared to the reality of 67 burglaries across the whole county.
He went on: “The reason that they’re [crimes] remembered more in the communities that we have, is because people don’t move around as much, so the memory is there and people talk a lot more.
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