08/04/2014 BBC Oxford News

Good evening. It's claimed crime in the papers on

Good evening. It's claimed crime in the Thames Valley is at its lowest

level in 25 years. That's according to new figures released by police.

The report points to a drop in burglaries and theft, althotgh

there's been a sharp rise in the number of recorded sexual offences.

Some crime experts say the figures can't be relied on as they lay not

take into account cyber crile. Jeremy Stern's been looking into

this story. On the surface, these figurds make

for excellent reading both for the police and, of course, people who

live in the Thames Valley. There were 127,500 reported crimes in the

year ending March 2014. That's the lowest amount since 1989, when there

were about 119,000. You may think this means we're now much s`fer but

I've spoken to some criminologists and they say, not necessarily. These

local figures don't take into account an explosion in onlhne

crimes like credit`card fratd. I asked the Deputy Chief Constable if

today's report just proves criminals have simply changed their t`ctics.

The reality is with a lot of the online crime, it could be committed

anywhere in the world but the victims could be based withhn this

country. My own view is that what most people think about when they're

thinking about crime are, "@m I safe in my community? Am I safe on my

street? Is my car safe when I leave it there?". And all the figtres that

are released today show that in the Thames Valley, you are safer than

you ever have been for the last 40 years. The report shows violent

crime is at about the same level as last year. Car theft is down. There

was a sharp rise in recorded sexual offences, from fewer than 2,000 last

year to more than 2,500 this year ` an increase of 30%, which police say

is reflected in other parts of the country. A lot of this is hhstoric

cases that might have happened decades ago which are only just now

coming under our crime records. So it's not an indication that people

are not safe within the Thales Valley. Officers say they'vd managed

to cut crime despite cuts to their own budget. The debate about how

reliable their figures are will go on.

The use of tasers by police has more than doubled ` with more officers

being armed with the weapon over the past 12 months. Thames Valldy Police

now has five times as many officers carrying Tasers on the stredts each

day, compared with just a ydar ago. An Oxford man has been jaildd in

America after admitting child`sex charges. Nicholas Cheese, who is 27,

will serve 17 years in a federal prison for producing indecent images

of a child. Police in Maine say they arrested him after complaints from

the parents of a 13`year`old girl who he had met online. He arranged

to meet her in a hotel room in the US, where he filmed a series of

sexual assaults. Police in Swindon have launched an

investigation after cars, road signs and some pavements were spr`y

painted with swastikas. 20 were identified in various locathons in

the town, including Frobishdr Drive and Norfolk Close. Officers have

been talking to residents and are studying CCTV footage to find out

who is responsible. A new military centre near Swindon,

which will teach service personnel foreign languages and cultural

differences before they travel abroad, has been officially opened

today. His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent led the cerdmony and

took a tour of the site. Tol Turrell was there too.

Standing amongst the large collection of military hardware one

could be forgiven for thinkhng war speaks only one language. Btt here

at the new Defence Centre for Languages and Culture on thd

outskirts of Swindon, they'll be teaching up to 40 languages to

service personnel who are going overseas. And today is its official

royal opening. APPLAUSE

This opens up a whole new r`ft of languages. It enables peopld to

start much earlier in their careers learning the language. This is going

to be a huge benefit to everybody in the future. I very much hopd that it

will be possible for more l`nguages to be taught here. And the puality

of the teaching is such that it s going to, I think, be very

infectious. His Royal Highndss is not unaccustomed to the milhtary's

language training courses ` he studied Russian at the formdr

Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield. But with the tse of

role play to compliment the classroom lessons, it seems this new

centre has been tailored to equip the Armed Forces with the ctltural

knowledge and linguistic skhlls needed for the 21st century. So what

do they think of their new college? In all, around 200 men and women

from the RAF, Army and Navy will be taught here at any one time. The

hope is that the better thex get at talking, then the less need they'll

be for weapons like these. `` the less need there will be.

Work to build a new community hospital in Henley is now dte to get

underway. The ?10 million redevelopment of the existing

Townlands site will take two years. The new hospital will have

in`patient and out patient care along with X`rays and dentistry NHS

Property Services, which owns the site, has confirmed all the partners

involved in the scheme are now signed up. The facility has been the

subject of a local campaign. A multi`million pound schemd to

create thousands of new jobs and attract more investment in science

in Oxford has been launched today. The MedCity project aims to join up

medical research between Oxford Cambridge and London. It will build

on work at Culham, Harwell `nd the University ` and encourage hi`tech

firms to move into the region. More than ?3 million is being spdnt on

the scheme. There's lots of joint research project between us and

Cambridge, between us and Ilperial and UCL. So in that sense, ht is

more about raising the visibility for the good of the region `nd the

UK as a whole rather than changing fundamentally the way we do

business. Of course, we do have competitive rivalry we with

Cambridge but we do have a lot of corporation and that is a vdry

fruitful tension. `` a lot of cooperation.

That's it from us for now. We're back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow

morning, but for now goodnight, and with the weather here's Alexis

Green. Good evening. Under clear skies and

with lighter winds than last night, the risk of a touch of mist and fog

as well as some patchy frost out in the countryside, with temperatures

falling to around four to fhve Celsius. We will see that low cloud

start to lift tomorrow mornhng and once it does, we will see some sunny

spells develop. So in the stnshine, pleasantly warm ` certainly warmer

than today with lighter winds. The slim chance of a shower but in the

afternoon sunshine, highs of 13 to 14 Celsius. There will be more cloud

tomorrow afternoon than the middle part of the day. So we are dxpecting

highs tomorrow of 14 Celsius. As we look ahead to the rest of the week,

a fair amount of cloud dry. Maybe a bit of light rain on

Friday. A quiet spell for us. Not so on the other side of the world. As

you have been hearing, there is not a great deal happening in the

weather over the UK over the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, we have been attacked thing -- tracking an active spring

storm in the US. There have been reports of flash flooding and

tornadoes. You can see a narrowband which is weakening and heading out

to the Atlantic. It is the Atlantic tonight that will pick up whether

funds to the north of the UK, bringing with them or cloud and

outbreaks of rain. Meanwhile, pressure remains relatively high to

the south. There is a small chance of patchy mist and fog and low cloud

by the end of the night. But temperatures will fall away again. A

chilly start to Wednesday morning. There will be a bit of a breeze

blowing in the north. But it will be a fairly cloudy and wet affair first

thing in the morning here. The rain will be sticking to the north-west

of Scotland. Further south after a bright start to the day, the cloud

will increase