Police attendance after every domestic burglary – yes, but they also need to be investigated

The Home Secretary’s announcement that police forces will in future attend all domestic burglaries received applause at the recent Tory Party conference. In my view a welcome development and yet in isolation, this will achieve very little. There is a further level of detail as well as understanding required before we can start celebrating.

A starting point is understanding what constitutes a domestic burglary. We travelled this road many years ago when some were in the business of managing crime figures to compete in performance tables.

For example, does this include when your garden shed or garage is burgled? Gardening equipment and other tools can cost a considerable amount of money. Are crimes of this nature in or out and will police attend them?

Then there is the vexatious issue of attempted burglaries. For example, is deliberate damage to a patio door lock or window an attempted burglary or criminal damage? Will an incident of this nature be guaranteed police attendance?

Scene attendance is clearly important but it is not the whole answer. Detecting a burglary begins with the receipt of the telephone report to the police. Ensuring that victims are advised to preserve any potential evidence is critical. The urge to tidy up or otherwise interfere with the crime scene must be resisted. Fingerprints and footprints can be easily lost.

In meeting the expectation that the police will visit the scene, is that the Police Community Support Officer, a rookie officer or a Scenes of Crime investigator? They all have a role to play, but have different skill sets.

We should not forget the recent recommendation from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary & Fire & Rescue Service in respect of Wiltshire Police, “The force should make sure investigation plans are created where applicable, with supervisory oversight ensuring that all investigative opportunities are taken, and that appropriate investigations are carried out in a timely manner.”

There is currently a significant skills deficit in the police following the loss of 20,000 police officer posts together with 24,000 police staff posts over the last decade. This is the statistic that politicians conveniently overlook when talking up the current extra 20,000 police officers. It will take time to replenish the reservoir of skills and experience.

Time is going to be an important consideration. Effective scene attendance is far more than just speaking with the victims and looking at the crime scene.

House-to-house enquiries are a valuable line of enquiry. Many houses now have some form of CCTV. Harvesting and then viewing footage all takes time. Similarly, follow-up enquiries can be equally time consuming e.g. tracing unidentified people and cars seen in the vicinity of the crime.

On the subject of time, there will be a reason the police stopped visiting crimes and started conducting telephone investigations. This will have been related to the sparsity of resources. If the police are now going to attend all burglaries, what other things are they going to stop doing?

In my opinion, two things need to happen for scene attendance to add value. The first is putting in place policy and procedures for managing the investigation of domestic burglaries.

The police as a service never forgot how to investigate crime. All the limiting factors I have identified need to be covered leaving no room for doubt. The knowledge still exists, it just needs to be put into practice.

The second thing is far more problematic and this relates to funding. We can have world-leading processes, but they add no value if they are inadequately resourced.

The government has made a number of bold claims about growth, but we are yet to understand how initiatives are to be funded. For example, the defence budget is to increase to 3% of GDP and double to £100 billion by 2030. The NHS is creaking and there are significant concerns regarding social care. Policing is just one of many deserving considerations when it comes to the public purse.

In my experience, a populist sound bite from a politician never detected a crime. Writing a domestic burglary strategy can be achieved with ease. In order to achieve success, the necessary skills and resources need to be in place. We need the Home Secretary to play her part and deliver.