THE latest crime figures for Tynedale give us a remarkable insight into how life has changed over the past year.

While demands on Northumbria Police reduced initially during the first lockdown, it swiftly returned to previous levels.

But it hasn’t been a case of business as usual for Insp. Garry Neill, the force’s rural inspector for Tynedale, and his colleagues.

In fact, it’s been anything but normal as the police have adapted to changes posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and they are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of demand.

Insp. Neill told the February meeting of Hexham Town Council that lockdown restrictions and Covid legislation had been hugely significant to the changes.

And he highlighted that while pubs had closed, offences committed within home communities and online had increased, while some activities which were perfectly acceptable pre-Covid were now being punished.

Let’s take a look at what has changed, and why.

Overall, the past 12 months have seen a 13 per cent reduction in crime – a decrease of 162 offences to this time last year, according to Insp. Neill.

He explained: “Make no bones about it, the initial lockdown is the reason for that.

“In March and April of last year, we saw a huge drop in our demand. As you can imagine, people did what we expected of them – they stayed in.

“The roads were quiet, we were very low on crime. People were in their houses and pubs were shut.”

So what’s changed? While we’ve been in and out of lockdown at different periods since last summer, Insp. Neill said spending more time at home did eventually have an impact.

He added: “In the latest lockdown we are where we’d expect it to be, certainly since December. One area of concern is harassment and stalking – we have seen a 40 per cent increase in these offences – that is an extra 57 offences.

“Again, I think that is down to the lockdown. We are seeing people falling out with neighbours, we are seeing disputes online, we are seeing people using the time they have in the house to carry out disputes on different media platforms.

“The majority of these offences will be down to those disputes being played out.”

Last week, the Courant reported a 225 per cent increase in activity of an anti-social nature in the Hexham area, with examples including young people congregating in cars of up to five or six people per vehicle.

We also reported police concerns about reports of people from outside of Tynedale – notably from North Tyneside, Newcastle, and South East Northumberland, visiting the district during lockdown.

However, Insp. Neill acknowledged these were examples of activities which had only become illegal as a result of Covid legislation, and they were now placing huge demands on police time.

Another problem, said the inspector, was not just due to Covid.

He explained: “In terms of domestic violence and child abuse, it has always been an issue that people do not report instances of these.

“Burglary residential, one of the worst crimes that we deal with, has seen a six per cent reduction, which is 37 offences less offences in the last year.”

“Do what is right,” he said. “Don’t go out on unnecessary journeys and stay local. If you live in Hexham, don’t go to Bellingham for a walk. Don’t go to Hadrian’s Wall.”