Investigations Reporter DAVID LEASK looks at why the number has fallen.

THERE were 676 robberies or assaults with intent to rob within city limits in 2011-12, almost two a day.

But this compares with 1264 in 2006-2007, when The Evening Times began its Crime on Your Street series, and 787 in 2010-11.

The dramatic fall in those crimes –the vast majority of which are street attacks on individuals – comes despite widespread expectations of an increase in the number of muggings.

This time last year, we revealed that then Chief Constable Steve House, was warning of a spate of assault-and-thefts on people waving around iPhones in the street.

Addicts, he explained, were increasingly desperate for cash as the purity of £10 bags of heroin plummeted – and they needed to buy more to feed their habit.

Heroin is still scarce. People are still carrying expensive smart-phones. But muggings are down. Why?

Well, it's partly because police have started using the kind of investigation techniques they would normally use for murders to help catch street muggers.

Detection rates, we can reveal, are through the roof in the city centre, approaching three quarters of all crimes.

Val Thomson, the chief superintendent for Glasgow's A division – which covers the city centre – said: "The robbery squad in Glasgow City centre is second to none. I don't believe there is another investigatory unit across this country that achieves the results they achieve.

"That is down to a lot of hard work. But it is also down to the luxury of CCTV within the city centre and the close working relationship we have with Glasgow Ciommunity and Safety Services (GCSS), which runs the network."

Mugging is a Group 1 crime, one of the violent crimes that ranks alongside serious assault, murder, abduction and child abuse as a massive priority for the police.

Ms Thomson added: "People who commit robberies consider it to be quite a low level crime. They maybe think they are bag snatching or stealing a phone.

"But the impact that has on a victim is horrendous. It can terrify people from going back in to the city centre. It can get the stage where an elderly victim may never want to leave their house again.

"That is why we are so focused on robbery. We have to get the number of those victims down."

The good news is that there are not actually that many muggers.

Most of them have drugs or drinks problems. Many live chaotic lives in and out of jail or hostels. But one person with a desperate need for, say, cash for drugs can do untold damage.

CCTV technology means police and other authorities can quickly identify such individuals, their MOs, their haunts.

Specialist officers visit them in their hostels, checking they know who is in or out of the city.

Locking up prolific muggers appears to have had an immediate impact on statistics.

Scott Douglas, the detective sergeant responsible for A division's robbery unit, sees muggers and their victims first hand.

He said: "Between 85% and 90% of our robberies are street robberies, or muggings.

"And more often than not the muggers are after the latest phones and cash.

"They know who to target – the vulnerable, if you are on your own and you are in a dark area walking down certain streets.

"We know where to watch for such attacks but people should just go with their common sense. The muggers will follow people out of town – and generally they will go past pubs and CCTV.

"And we can find that and catch them even if we don't have the actual crime on tape."

Statistics crunched by the Evening Times confirm this.

Several areas just outside the city centre, such as St George's Cross and Calton Barras, are hunting grounds for muggers.

Douglas has seen what muggings can do to victims.But he also sees just how damaged many of the individuals he catches are.

One recent street robber was jailed for eight years. He was 32 and had only spent seven weeks of his life outside custody since he was 14.

There is another reason for falling mugging figures.People file false reports of being mugged – saying they have been a victim when they haven't – to collect insurance money.

But they are increasingly being caught out in the lie. Chief Inspector Martin Cloherty, the city centre commander, said: "We have had cases where teenagers who have maybe lost their phone go home and say they have been robbed and suddenly that is reported to us.

"It is time-consuming but we can quickly discover using CCTV that they were not actually robbed in the place where they said they were."

The drop in muggings, meanwhile, runs firmly against trends for other acquisitive crimes.

Take common theft – the basic measure of stealing.

There were more than 9000 such crimes in the city of Glasgow in 2011-12, the highest figure since 2007-2008.

SAFETY TIP:

Every phone has an IMEI number. Always keep a copy of this number because if somebody steals it and tries to sell it on through a bonafide firm, the phone can be returned. For information on how to find your IMEI number, go to http://imei-number.com/how-to-find-imei-number/

BUSIEST BEATS IN THE CITY ARE GETTING QUIETER

TWO of Glasgow's busiest beats Alpha Bravo 6, Buchanan Street South and Argyle Street, and Alpha Bravo 9, St Enoch's, had more robberies or attempted robberies than anywhere else with 19 each in 2011-12. But this was down from 33 and 48 respectively in 2006-07.

The biggest improvement in robbery figures is in the once notorious neighbouring beat of AB11, the area around Central Station.

Mugging Central had 58 robberies or assaults with intent to rob in 2006-07, in the year to March 2012 the total was just 13.

Although falling, robbery figures remain high in some traditional routes to and from the city centre.

St George's Cross; Glasgow Cross and the Saltmarket; and Calton Barras all make it in to our Top 10.