by Helen Richardson

Sex offences involving child porn have shot up in Kent, latest figures reveal.

While crime overall has fallen in the county, the number of obscene publications offences has risen by 56 per cent in the last year.

Hundreds of thousands of images have been seized, with figures rising by 42 offences, from 75.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams told Kent Online: "We take a really hard line around images of children on computers. Those figures represent some really hard work between Kent Police Public Protection and Digital Forensics units across the county.

"A total of over 125,000 indecent images have been seized and taken out of circulation. There will be more offences recorded as we become more sophisticated in recovering this sort of imagery."

Overall the number of recorded incidents in Kent fell by 7.8 per cent between April 2008 and March 2009. That's equivalent to more than 10,000 crimes.

But the statistics show drug offences rose during the last year.

There were an extra 439 offences between April 2008 and March 2009, a rise of 12.5 per cent.

Kent police say it's because of a number of operations specifically targeting drug dealers.

A major operation by officers focussing on drug dealers in Maidstone is said to make up nearly half of the drug trafficking offences increase. Nearly 200 charges were made on 30 offenders.

But there has been good news elsewhere. Neighbourhood policing has been given a boost, which has had a positive effect on local communities.

Burglary of people's homes dropped by 471 crimes. There has also been a reduction of 12,710 reported anti-social behaviour incidents. Criminal damage reduced by 3,690 crimes and violent crime reduced by 1,514. Robbery is down by 136 offences and violence against the person has decreased by 1089 offences ( down 4.3 per cent).