England Chiefs Pledge Police Will Attend Every Burglary

All 43 chief constables in England and Wales have signed a pledge to dispatch officers to the site of every house that is burgled after coming under fire for failing to focus police manpower on actual crimes instead of monitoring memes on social media.

For the first time in British history, all police chiefs in England and Wales have made a commitment to have officers personally investigate the site of home burglaries, in the wake of an August report from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, which found that the rate of solving thefts or burglaries was “unacceptable and unsustainable”, with just 6.3 per cent of home burglaries resulting in criminal charges.

This was followed by another report from former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer, who argued that forces should “police streets, not tweets” if they want to regain the trust of the British public.

Announcing the pact to investigate every home burglary, Martin Hewitt of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “Wherever you live in England and Wales you can be confident the police will attend if you experience the invasion of a home burglary.

“This should see more burglaries being solved and more offenders prosecuted.’ Writing in tomorrow’s Daily Mail, Mr Hewitt declares: ‘We want to give people the peace of mind of knowing if you experience that invasion, the police will come, find all possible evidence and make every effort to catch those responsible.

“That’s a critical part of the contract between the police and public.”

According to information reported by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, over the past five years there were 1.76 million burglaries reported in England and Wales, yet 1.41 million cases were shut down without a suspect being identified. The paper went on to report that last year, just 7,887 burglars were actually convicted.