Shoplifting, fraud and sexual offences in the county have seen a sharp rise in the past year against a background of crime going down, according to new figures.

Kent Police’s Chief Constable pledged there will “be no let up” in the drive to bring criminals to book.

Tim Smith was giving his account on the force’s record in the past year – from April 2024 to March 2025 – to the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Scott, this morning.

The Making Kent Safer report showed 161,621 recorded crimes in the county, which is 2.6% down on the previous year. Over a four-year span, the drop is 10.6%.

Victim-based crime, antisocial behaviour, burglary (residential and business), and violent and hate crime all showed significant falls year on year.

But there was a year-on-year spike in shoplifting (+11.2%), sexual offences (+8%) and fraud (10.5%).

Over the four-year period, the number of shoplifting crimes has increased by 55.1%, partly driven by organised crime gangs and streamlined reporting of offences.

There were 16,839 offences recorded, but the data also shows that 5,702 suspects were interviewed, up 24.1%. This has rocketed by nearly 64% in the past four years.

Mr Smith conceded to the commissioner’s Performance and Delivery Board that it is “a challenging crime type” with organised gangs operating in the county.

The rise in shoplifting cases was driven upward by better reporting processes.

The report states: “In September 2022, a Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) was introduced as a single system to receive, store, manage and share digital assets. This aims to make it easier and more efficient for businesses to submit digital evidence, such as CCTV, leading to earlier interventions to secure timelier outcomes.”

Neighbourhood policing as well collaborative work with retailers and town centre managers enables the sharing of good practice and “develop effective partnerships to prevent and tackle shoplifting and other related offences”, says the report.

Sexual offences rose 8% year on year in Kent.

The report adds: “There has been a -2.7% decrease (-183 offences) in sexual offences across the four year period. During 2024/25, there was an increase of 8.0% (497 more offences).

“The increase is mainly attributable to new offences being introduced in February 2024 relating to the sharing of intimate photograph(s) or film.

“This has resulted in 2024/25 not being directly comparable with previous years; April to June experienced the highest volumes across the four year period.”

There were 1,346 fraud offences recorded, up 10.5% but is down more than 8% over four years.

The report notes: “Fraud typically sees an increasing trend from October to September with a reduction before increasing again. However, there was no reduction in October 2024 with quarterly offence volumes continuing to rise.”

The chief constable told the commissioner’s Performance and Delivery Board: “We will be a crime-fighting force. We will catch criminals; we will solve crime. Of course we will support and protect victims but first and foremost I would want us to be a crime fighting force.

“There will be no let up in the focus; that we will catch people and secure the appropriate outcome for those individuals.

“If people need to be charged and remanded to court and go to prison because they are dangerous to the public, then we will do it.”

The force, which reports an “uncertain” financial position, has undergone a change in the way it operates, namely in the delivery of neighbourhood police and divisional investigations.