Catching burglars is still a top priority for Britain’s police forces, a senior officer has insisted.
But Deputy Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith said they have been trying “to balance a whole host of demands” – including spending “millions of hours with mental health patients in hospitals”.
He spoke to the Daily Express amid concerns over the shockingly low numbers of thieves being caught.
Out of 148,764 residential burglaries recorded by forces in England and Wales in 2021/22, just 5,236 – 3.5 per cent – led to a charge or summons.
But DCC Franklin-Smith, the NPCC’s lead for burglary, dismissed claims that solving break-ins had taken a backseat in crime-fighting.
He said: “I’m not sure I’d agree that it’s slipped down the list of priorities.
“We’re trying to, I guess, balance a whole host of demands and competing things the public wants us to deal with. And we haven’t got an infinite number of resources.”
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He added: “Officers have spent over a million hours sitting with mental health patients at hospitals awaiting assessment – the equivalent of attending 600,000 burglaries.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has said all forces are now attending every break-in to gather evidence. And victims can expect officers to attend within four hours of calling 999 or 101.
DCC Franklin-Smith said: “For most forces, it’s reasonable to say that within a four-hour period…you would expect attendance.” But he also wants to see more forces setting up specialist burglary units.
He said: “It’s not rocket science. If you’ve got teams of detectives and proactive uniformed officers on dedicated teams, that does have a correlation with increased detections.”
Police chiefs will receive a new “doctrine” setting out “minimum standards” officers must meet while investigating burglary. DCC Franklin-Smith said: “A lot of this is back to basics, but it’s about call handlers getting the right information in the first place.
“And there’s a lot in there around the role of crime scene investigators.”
He also revealed some forces are asking burglary victims to use video tools, such as Zoom, to show forensic officers around their homes.
He added: “If they identify available opportunities, they would follow that up with a physical attendance.”
