Opinion: Tackling burglary is a priority for us

It causes significant financial loss and emotional distress to those affected by it. ​As such, tackling burglary is a priority for the force.

We have two dedicated Acquisitive Crime Teams (ACT) here, one for the north of the county who are based in Peterborough and one for the south who are based in Cambridge.

These teams are responsible for investigating incidents of burglary and robbery and bringing those responsible to justice.

We recognise that burglary is a major concern for the public, and while our ACT is the lead team for this crime type, we also look to our Response, Neighbourhoods and Intelligence teams for support.

We take a proactive approach to tackling burglary, this includes trying to prevent it from happening in the first place.

We encourage people to take measures such as ensuring their homes are secure, installing security systems, and reporting suspicious behaviour in their neighbourhoods.

By working together, we can reduce the number of burglaries and keep communities safe.

When a report of burglary is made, unless it is a burglary in action, it will not get an immediate response, however our Acquisitive Crime Team look to respond as quickly as possible to the scene of the crime.

Their initial priority is to ensure the safety of the victim and secure the area.

They will try to identify and collect evidence, including fingerprints and DNA samples, which can be used to identify the perpetrator.

We also look to identify any witnesses or CCTV opportunities; we have seen several examples here in recent times where footage from a doorbell camera has led to successful prosecutions and custodial sentences.

Sadly, we are encountering more residential burglaries than in recent years, this is consistent with crime increases nationally.

We have made significant improvements in the total number of people we are prosecuting for burglary, with an increase of 26 percent compared to the last year.

The key to this remains keeping a close watch on those actively committing crime, seizing opportunities to prosecute them, and providing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with strong evidence to put in front of a court.

Through our Integrated Offender Management (IOM) team, we work closely with our local prisons, probation service and local drug and alcohol charities and as a group we often follow the same, relatively small number of people through the cycle of prison release, committing crime, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment.

However, our IOM team work incredibly hard to support and rehabilitate prolific offenders or take robust action where they choose to carry on committing crime. IOM is a national scheme, led by police and probation, which provides a multi-agency approach to prevent and reduce serious crime within our communities.

It focuses on persistent and often violent offenders who repeatedly commit crimes such as burglaries, robberies, and other acquisitive crime.

Those on the scheme are supervised and managed by our officers and those from the probation service, as well as receiving support from many other agencies including housing and drug rehabilitation services.

As ever I encourage you to help us to be better – who is actively committing crime where you live, who is dealing, stealing, or handling?

The more information we know, the better equipped we are to prevent and detect crime.