Lock it or lose it - say police

It’s not rocket science, but if you cut funding to the police during a time of austerity, the chances are crime will rise.

Well, the current government has starved our crimefighters of financial support, while cutting budgets left right and centre and, would you know it, crime has risen.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal crime has risen by 13 per cent nationally year on year.

And to add a further layer of bleakness to the report, the number of recorded crimes had passed the five million mark for the first time in 10 years.

Today we reveal a particular problem with burglaries.

They are up by 29 per cent in our community.

As ever there is some confusion about the true figure due to a new way in which crime is recorded, but perhaps what is most startling is the anecdotal evidence provided by the police.

Despite repeated stories about rising crime levels and under staffed police forces, we are being told that the majority of burglaries are being carried out on insecure properties.

Detective Chief Inspector Lee Gosling said: “Overwhelmingly, the majority of burglaries have been carried out by opportunists who have been able to get into homes through unlocked doors.

“It is very rare we will come across a forced breakin.”

The public are the first to complain about a lack of police on the beat and condemn our government for failing to provide adequate finances to our crimefighters, but we need to give the police we do have on the street a fighting chance.

And we can do that by locking our doors properly. It’s not rocket science.