1:00pm Sunday 19th August 2007
By Nicola Davies
BURGLARIES at homes in Crewe and Nantwich have been slashed by more than a third.
Police say the dramatic decrease is the result of rigorous targetting of burglaries and burglars in addition to a strong crime prevention strategy.
Figures for Crewe from April to July in 2006 and 2007 show a 38% reduction with burglaries falling from 151 in 2006 to 93 in 2007 whilst Nantwich shows a 52% drop with 42 burglaries in 2006 to 20 in 2007.
Detective Chief Inspector Geraint Jones said the Pro Active Policing Team take an all-round' approach to tackling burglary, examining patterns of break-ins, methods used, and from available information plan what needs to be done.
"In some cases it may involve covert or surveillance work or setting up a full-scale police operation, whatever is necessary to catch the criminals and secure evidence against them," he said.
"This type of intelligence gathering runs alongside the careful targeting of known burglars.
"A pattern or type of crime can often be linked to a particular offender and our officers have the local knowledge to recognise this when it happens."
"Our arrest rate is going up right across the Area and some of the most prolific burglars are in prison - one way of reducing burglary is to remove the burglars from the streets."
The Safer Homes strategy is also proving effective in reducing burglaries in the area.
Superintendent John Armstrong, from the Eastern Area Command Team, said: "Apart from rapid attendance by Crime Scene Investigators and the fast-tracking of the evidence they discover, Safer Homes takes account of the fact that burglars very often return to the scene of the crime.
"Houses which are broken into sometimes suffer a second burglary within weeks or months and to stop this, detectives hand a special burglary prevention pack to the householder which includes guidance on security, property marking, and how to contact us for advice."
Police have been conducting home security assessments, informing residents of ways to protect their home and offer support following a burglary, notifying neighbouring homes of the incident and urging people to come forward with information.
Supt Armstrong added: "We believe Safer Homes is very effective in making life more difficult for the criminal.
"The strategy also makes the person whose home has been burgled feel a lot more secure. It is a very stressful time and they need all the reassurance we can give."
Supt John Armstrong, from the Eastern Area Command Team, said he wants to see more people satisfied with police support.
He said: "Largely because of Safer Homes, current surveys among people who have suffered a burglary are showing nearly a hundred per cent customer satisfaction with the support we offer.
"We would like to reach the same level of satisfaction with victims of other offences.
"With vehicle crime, for instance, although our detection rate has been improving for some time, we know our follow-up work as far as keeping the victim informed has not always been as good as we would wish.
"We are making efforts to do better. At the moment we try to send an officer out when anyone reports a theft from their vehicle and we have improved our system for keeping them informed about the progress of any investigation.
"More customer service improvements are in the pipeline, but as usual it is a matter of resources.
"We can only do more on that front if we do less somewhere else."
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