Police failing to investigate 72% of vehicle thefts
POLICE failed to attend more than seven out of ten car thefts in England last year leaving 30,900 crimes uninvestigated, it was revealed yesterday.
The number of unattended incidents has soared by 32% from 2021.
The Liberal Democrats used Freedom of Information to gather the figures just months after the Home Office revealed that three in four car theft cases went unsolved in the year ending September 2023.
Cambridgeshire was worst performing force with 1,156 incidents unattended, 90% of all cases. Bedfordshire followed closely behind with 88%.
Shortfall
Latest Home Office figures show that between 2022 and 2023, 210 officers were cut from local investigation teams.
This is on top of a 2021 estimate by the National Police Chiefs’ Council of a national shortfall of almost 7,000 detectives.
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said: “These figures are shocking and show the government is failing to get a grip on the car theft epidemic across the country. No wonder the vast majority of car thefts go unsolved if officers aren’t even showing up at the scene for most of these cases.
“These failings cannot be ignored for a moment longer. The Conservative Government must finally produce a strategy to tackle the shortage of detectives.”
The Home Office said it is “working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to prevent and reduce vehicle crime”.
It added: “This includes training officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging owners to secure vehicles and working with industry to prevent theft.”