Each year, residents across the Humber region share their views on crime, community safety and confidence in policing. The 2025 Police and Crime Plan Survey provide valuable insight into what matters most to communities and how these priorities are shifting over time. Last month we published the results of the Police and Crime plan survey, which can be found here.
We promised a weekly blog featuring a specific topic of the survey. In this first blog are taking a deep dive into what our residents' priorities are and how these change between different communities.
What where the top priorities for residents in 2025?
Respondents were asked to rank their Top 5 priorities from 20 different types of crime and ASB. The question specifically focused on what police and other agencies should do more to tackle issues, not necessarily which crimes were personally most relevant to them.
2025 Top Five Priorities
The top five priorities identified this year were:
- Burglary
- Dangerous Driving
- Drug‑Related Crime
- Nuisance ASB
- Knife or Weapon‑Enabled Violence
This reflects a slight change from last year. In 2024, Nuisance ASB was the number one priority but has now fallen to fourth place. Burglary and Dangerous Driving have moved into the top two slots, suggesting rising public concern around both road safety and household safety/security.
Emerging Trends
A few issues showed significant movement in the rankings from last year to this year:
- Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) rose from 13th to 7th highest priority, indicating growing awareness and urgency around this issue.
- Environmental ASB fell from 3rd to 6th, but it remains an important concern.
- Personal ASB experienced the largest drop, from 8th to 17th (out of 20 issues), suggesting shifting perceptions of personal safety incidents.
Differences in location: similar priorities, different ordering
Across all four Local Authorities: East Riding, Hull, North East Lincolnshire, and North Lincolnshire the same five crime types emerged as top priorities. However, the order differed:
- Hull: Burglary was ranked the highest priority
- East Riding, NE Lincs, North Lincs: Dangerous Driving was identified as the leading priority
Drug‑related crime was consistently ranked within each area’s top three, reflecting widespread concern about drug activity and its impact on communities.
The priorities of residents in smaller rural areas also differed:
- Nuisance ASB dropped as a top 5 priority (ranked 7th, compared to 4th overall)
- Fraud rose sharply, becoming the joint 4th highest priority, despite ranking 8th overall
The priorities of respondents living in larger rural areas, urban areas and coastal areas were found to be reflective of the Humber region.
Community priorities through the perspective of deprivation
The survey also analysed differences in priorities based on deprivation, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). For residents living in our least deprived areas there was a stronger emphasis on Burglary, which was their number one priority. In contrast, residents living in areas of higher deprivation had Drug-related crime and Environment ASB as higher priorities when compared to the Humber region as a whole.
What This Means for the Police and Crime Plan
The 2025 survey provides a clear indication of where residents feel policing, and partnership activity should focus:
- Tackling burglary and similar crimes
- Improving road safety and addressing dangerous driving
- Responding more effectively to ASB, especially Nuisance ASB
- Addressing a growing concern around violence involving knives and other weapons
The significant rise in VAWG as a priority also signals a need for ongoing and visible efforts to address harm to women and girls.
The priorities were found to be consistent across residents living in different Local Authorities; rural, urban and coastal locations; and different social-economic groups. However, when this was not the case, we have listened, and we will reflect this in our future planning.
