More than three-quarters of burglaries reported go unsolved, coming to nearly 600 per day
25 July 2023, 05:48 | Updated: 25 July 2023, 05:50
More than 213,000 burglaries reported last year went unsolved, damning new figures show.
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That's the equivalent of 584 per day in England and Wales for the 2022/23 financial year, or three-quarters of all the cases reported to the police.
South Yorkshire police were the least successful at identifying the suspect in burglaries - more than 84% of cases were not solved by officers over the period.
Hampshire Police failed to crack 83% of burglary cases, while the Metropolitan Police did not solve 81.6% of burglaries, the Sun reported, citing Liberal Democrat analysis of Home Office statistics.
The party said that just 12% of officers are on frontline community policing operations.
Read more: Police now attend every home burglary after chief constables' landmark deal
Caller doesn't feel the police understand 'the confidence you lose' after a burglary.
The Lib Dems' home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: "Knowing that so many burglars are getting off scot-free will bring little comfort to our communities.
"Make no mistake, these are the consequences of the Conservatives constantly side-lining frontline policing. Enough is enough. The Home Secretary must finally restore proper community policing."
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "Since 2010 communities are safer, with neighbourhood crimes including burglary, robbery and theft down 51 per cent.”
"We have delivered more police officers in England and Wales than ever before and invested record funding into policing.
"This includes more visible patrols in our neighbourhoods and better security such as CCTV and alarm systems."
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They also pointed out that Home Secretary Suella Braverman had told forces to send an officer to every burglary.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) confirmed in June that police would now attend every burglary.
The police council said the commitment to attending burglaries has been in effect across England and Wales since March.
An analysis of police data found that in just over 48% of 30,100 neighbourhoods, no burglaries were solved in the three years ending in March 2023.
