Police forces that ignore half of all burglaries

HALF of house burglaries are not investigated by two of Britain’s biggest police forces under a policy of ‘ screening out’ crime reports, it emerged yesterday.

Greater Manchester Police said 57 per cent of domestic burglary reports were not looked into further last year, while the Metropolitan Police shelved 49.6 per cent after just a preliminary review.

Under the controversial policy of ‘screening out’, resources are directed at cases where there is a prospect of catching the offender, for example if there are witnesses or CCTV evidence.

Yesterday, however, critics said the policy undermined faith in the police and gave criminals a licence to steal.

The figures for Greater Manchester, unearthed by the Liberal Democrats under Freedom of Information laws, show that 111,445 crimes – 45 per cent of all those reported last year – were ‘screened out’.

These included 57 per cent of domestic burglaries, 70 per cent of bicycle thefts, and 76 per cent of street thefts. In addition police failed to carry out inquiries

‘Communities feeling unsafe’

into three-quarters of vehicle offences, a third of all public order offences and one in three shoplifting incidents.

The Metropolitan Police said it screened out nearly half of burglary reports last year – a total of 33,968 crimes.

Overall it screened out 29.5 per cent of crimes – a total of 225,362 – however its performance both on burglaries and overall crime has improved over each of the past four years.

David Spencer, of the Centre For Crime Prevention think-tank, said it was a ‘dereliction of duty’ for police to disregard so many offences.

‘By failing to even investigate they are essentially inviting burglars to help themselves,’ he said.

Greater Manchester Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said his force had to ‘prioritise our workload on the most serious crime which represents the greatest threat risk to the public’.

A Metropolitan Police source said: ‘ At least two officers will always review a report of a burglary, but if no one’s seen anything and there’s no CCTV then there’s really very little prospect of finding anything out.’