Residential Burglaries of the Home (1761A/23)
Request
You asked us:
a) How many ‘residential burglaries of the home’ only (excluding unconnected buildings like sheds) were reported to your force between 1st June 2023 & 30th September 2023. Please break it down by month.
b) Of these reported ‘residential burglaries of the home’ only (excluding unconnected buildings like sheds, how many were attended by a police officer? Please break it down by month.
Our Response
We can confirm that West Midlands Police holds information within the scope of your request, and we are disclosing all that information (please find attached).
We fully understand the devastating impact burglary can have on those affected whether in their home or business environment.
Since December 2022, our response to incidents of burglary changed. Following a national agreement, we now attend all reported residential burglaries, unless the victim states they do not wish us to attend.
We’re committed to following the trail of evidence in all the cases we examine − but if an investigation finds no witnesses, CCTV or forensic evidence then the chances of identifying offenders is vastly reduced.
We saw a natural increase in burglary offences following the lifting of Covid restrictions which meant that as people began leaving their homes more, burglary figures rose. However, we have seen a fall in figures during 2023. This was partly due to the force recognising that burglary was a priority offence and strategies were put in place to help reduce this crime, which includes working with our regional forces to target burglary suspects and organised crime gangs.
We also look at the underlying causes of burglary and the people who commit these crimes and have invested in rehabilitation and intervention programmes to help reduce these offences.
The results of these comprehensive measures are encouraging. We continuously evaluate and refine our strategies, we remain committed to providing a safer environment for all members of the public.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.