Police taking over 17 hours to respond to burglary calls in Staffordshire
Police in Staffordshire are taking an average of 17 hours to respond to burglary calls, damning new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.
This is a dramatic 73% increase in response times compared to figures from 2021/22, where it took an average 9 hours to respond to burglaries.
Across England, police are taking an average of 9 hours and 8 minutes to show up at the scene when a burglary was reported. This is a 25% increase when compared to the previous year and an 87% increase on burglary response times in 2020/21.
Staffordshire Liberal Democrats Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate has slammed the Conservative Government for these figures, arguing that years of ineffective resourcing have left local police forces overstretched, under-resourced and unable to effectively respond to local crime.
This includes taking more than 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and able to focus on responding to neighbourhood crime like burglaries and anti-social behaviour.
Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate for Staffordshire, Councillor Alec Sandiford, said:
“Having your home burgled is a traumatic experience, and victims deserve a swift response from the police. Yet thanks to the Conservative Government, this is increasingly out of reach.
“People in Staffordshire deserve to feel safe in their own homes. The fact that traumatised burglary victims are being left waiting for hours, wondering if the police will even arrive, is unacceptable. To think that crucial evidence may be lost in the process too is unforgivable.
“We need a fresh approach to the issues facing Staffordshire Police than we currently have from the serving Commissioner. With the force under special measures, crime rising year-on-year, no visibility and low morale with the public losing faith fast. Why should the good people of Staffordshire reward failure?
“It’s time to finally restore proper community policing, so people can be confident that if they do fall victim to crime, the police will turn up and investigate properly. My priorities are 1) Help the force exit from special measure 2) Reduce crimes year-on-year 3) Increase police visibility across our communities 4) Recruit more officers’ year-on-year 5) Police to attend all crimes and speak to victims face-to-face 6) Chief Constable & Commissioner to hold public meetings to build trust and listen to residents.”
Notes:
This data was uncovered by a FOI to all 39 police forces in England, 26 provided full responses. Their responses, which can be accessed here, provided the following data:
The average time (in hours:minutes:second) it takes for police to arrive on the scene of domestic burglary incidents in your force for the following financial years: 2022/23, 2021/22 and 2020/21.
Some forces further disaggregated their data depending on the priority ranking of burglary. In these cases, we found an average between all the categories provided.
Data on PCSO workforce available at: Home Office, ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2023: data tables’, Table 3.
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