West Midlands Police & Fire Services Join forces to Put Out Arson Attacks

West Midlands police and fire services are working together to blaze a trail with national crime reduction initiatives.

Official 2009/10 figures, released this week, put West Midlands second only to London for arson reduction and substantially ahead of comparable metropolitan areas like Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Tyne & Wear.
Arson costs the UK economy an estimated £2.53 billion a year; in the last decade there have been around 2.3 million deliberate fires resulting in 25,000 injuries and over 900 deaths.

The two organisations have been working closely to target arson-related crime since Government moves in 2003 to tackle the problem nation-wide.

The aim, back in 2003, was to reduce the number of deliberate fires by 10 per cent by 2010. West Midlands Police arson lead Sergeant Phil Butler said: "We have far exceeded initial expectations by achieving a 73 per cent reduction of deliberate property fires from that original baseline."

When additional factors like the increased number of empty homes and business premises - largely due to repossessions and companies going under during the recession - are taken into account, this figure is all the more impressive.

Sgt Butler added: "Where arson was a problem and has been incorporated into the focus of Local Area Agreements, we have hit all the targets across the West Midlands."

He added: "We measure ourselves against other metropolitan areas and are second only to London. But the capital has a very different social and business structure to the West Midlands area. The parking and movement of cars is considerably different in the city centre because of the congestion charge; the high value of and demand for business and domestic property means there are fewer empty buildings; and the Met's counter terrorism measures also affect the way in which people behave. All these factors have a direct influence on the number of deliberate vehicle and property fires."

The West Midlands pioneered the policy of abandoned vehicles being removed within three days of being reported. This has contributed to an 80 per cent drop in the number of vehicle fires - and the initiative has been adopted nationally.

Businesses and schools have also been the focus of attention, with the launch of tailored packages of fire and crime prevention advice which enable organisations to complete mandatory fire risk assessments and comply with current Government legislation. In addition, police and fire officers work closely with Local Education Authorities to offer a range of tuition and guidance. Stage shows, presented by theatre-in-education groups, are rolled out to around 16,000 secondary-age pupils each year. Statistics show that hoax 999 calls have been greatly reduced.

Another major arson crime category is dwelling fires and work to reduce statistics has brought about a closer professional relationship between police and fire officers around the West Midlands. Pilot areas see victims of crime flagged up for home fire safety checks and fire crews signposting crime prevention needs in the community. Sgt Butler said: "These initiatives are targeting people who need our help and contribute to a more effective approach to community safety."

He added: "One of the other outcomes to bear in mind is that all the officer time freed up by not attending and helping to investigate fires means more time dedicated to other areas of crime."