A staggering 72% of burglaries went unsolved in Kent in the 2022/2023 financial year – an average of 13 a day, new analysis has revealed.The figures, from official Home Office statistics, show that in 2022/2023 a total of 4,850 burglaries in Kent were closed without a suspect being identified, accounting for 72% of all cases. Meanwhile, just 6% of Kent burglaries resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed.
The national figures paint a similarly dire picture. Across England and Wales, nearly 77% of all burglaries went unsolved in that same time period.
Dover & Deal Liberal Democrats have slammed the Government for these figures. Since 2015, the Conservatives have taken over 4,000 Police Community Support Officers off the streets. And as of last year, just 12% of officers across England and Wales were assigned to frontline neighbourhood policing teams.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are trusted and visible in their neighbourhoods, with the time and resources to focus on tackling local crimes like burglaries. The party is also calling for a new “Burglary Response Guarantee” under which all domestic burglaries would be attended by the police and properly investigated.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Dover & Deal, Penelope James, said:
“Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their own homes. But under this terrible Government, so many burglars are getting off scot-free. These figures will bring little comfort to families and pensioners in Kent.
“It’s a disgrace that our local communities are paying the price for the Conservative Government’s failures to get tough on burglaries.
“The Conservatives must finally bring back proper community policing and back the Liberal Democrats Burglary Response Guarantee so all burglaries are attended by the police. It’s the only way to reverse these shocking figures.”
Liberal Democrats are calling for a new statutory guarantee that all burglaries must be attended by police and properly investigated.
To implement this guarantee, Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to:
- Return to proper community policing, where officers have the time and resources they need to focus on preventing and solving crime;
- Urgently draw up a strategy to tackle the shortage of detectives; and
- Set up a new national Online Crime Agency, to better protect people from online crime while freeing up local forces’ time to tackle burglars.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council have announced that as of June 2023, police are now attending the scene of every home burglary. However, no evidence has yet been published to show if this is the case.
The commitment from the National Police Chiefs’ Council is a voluntary pledge, rather than the statutory guarantee that would place a duty on police forces to attend every burglary, and a duty on the Government to make sure the resources are in place to do it.
