At last, there is some good news regarding domestic burglary rates in the UK. The number of burglaries in domestic properties fell by about 12% in the year to April 2014 compared with the previous year, according to the estimates of the Crime Survey England and Wales (CSEW).

The number of burglaries was 785,000 compared to 888,000 the previous year. This was comprised of 573,000 burglaries in a dwelling and 212,000 in a building not connected to a dwelling (garages, sheds and so on).

This welcome reduction must be due in large part to householders taking home security more seriously and installing burglar alarms, CCTV cameras, and security lighting. Obviously, such measures are needed more than ever in view of the cutbacks in the police force.

Kent burglaries are up but police levels are down

However, although this might be good news on a national basis it is not reflected in Kent where, over the same period, domestic burglary rates rose by a shocking 27% according to Kent Police Federation statistics.

This is a continuing trend that we noted in the stats for the previous period up to September 2013 and an infographic showed that Kent was 10th on the list of domestic burglaries in England and Wales for 2013.

And yet, back in January, Kent’s Chief Constable, Alan Pughsley, said a £20m budget cut forced on it by the government could lead to as many as 100 more police officers losing their jobs – on top of the 500 already lost because of previous cuts. He also confirmed the force would no longer be able to send officers to every victim of crime and low-level incidents would be dealt with over the phone.

Of course, the jump in the Kent figures is not actually the result of the reduction in the number of police officers, since the police can do little – other than offer advice – to prevent domestic burglary. Instead, the police are called in after a crime has been committed and then do their best to find and arrest the burglar, so the cut in the number of officers may result in fewer successful prosecutions.

Homeowners need to take responsibility for preventing burglaries

Prevention of burglary rests squarely on the shoulders of the homeowner. According to the Office for National Statistics some 83% of households had double locks or deadlocks on “at least some” of their outside doors and 88% had locks on their windows. These two measures combined are considered by ONS to be “basic” security and 3 in 4 homes had this level of protection.

However, this indicates that 25% of homes do not have even basic security. 12% do NOT have locks on their windows!!

Burglars will obviously target such homes rather than those with obvious security devices such as burglar alarms, security lighting, CCTV cameras and so on. They are also an open invitation to the opportunist burglar. It seems that the increase in the number of Kent burglaries may well be due to a somewhat cavalier attitude to taking sensible home security measures, as opposed to the majority of the country.

The increase in the population of the country over the last 50 years has been ten million people – 20% – and the figure is expected to continue to increase. Not all of these people are criminals, but a proportion are, so it is realistic to expect burglaries to increase, especially where the target properties are easy to enter.

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