Met Police suggest planting roses in your garden could deter would-be burglars
15 March 2025, 08:45
The Metropolitan Police have suggested that burglary victims should plant 17 kinds of shrub in their gardens in a bid to deter would-be burglars.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The new advice dished out by the force lists a range of varieties that could ward off home invaders, adding that planting them "close together" could help.
Burglary victims are reportedly being handed leaflets with advice on keeping out intruders, with suggestions that include planting climbing roses, currants, oranges and privet shrubs.
The leaflets link to a page on the Met's website, which contains further tips, including installing a gravel driveway and internal metal grills.
The leaflet says: “Planting particular shrubs (in their mature or semi-mature form) along garden walls and fences can make it harder for burglars to access your property or put them off completely.
"To maximise this effect, plant them close to each other.”
It was revealed that the proportion of reported burglaries attended by officers in London in 2022 had fallen to just 50 per cent.
It follows Home Office figures released last year which showed that 82 per cent of burglaries went unsolved by the Metropolitan Police in the year 2022-2023.
The figures make the Met the third worst-performing police force in the country, surpassed only by South Yorkshire Police (84 per cent) and Hampshire constabulary (83 per cent) unsolved.
The exhaustive list of useful plants is said to include:
- Berberis
- Osmanthus
- Forget
- Poncirus
- Crataegus
- Pyracantha
- Aralia
- Chaenomeles
- Ribes
- Oplopanax
- Elaeagnus
- Robinia
- Colletia
- Ilex
- Climbing roses
- Maclura
- Mahonia
- Ligustrum (privet), or laurel
- Smilax and Zanthoxylum
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, told The Times: “For all crime the Met’s clear-up rate is the worst in the country. The Met police needs to concentrate on the basics of catching criminals and less on gardening advice.
"The police’s most basic function is catching criminals and a 5 per cent charge rate is just not good enough.
“I want to see the police using more effective methods such as facial recognition to catch criminals and put them where they belong, in prison.
"Gardening advice is not going to help do that.”
