British police have effectively “given up” on tackling burglaries. That is the damning conclusion of a major investigation by The Sun, which has laid bare a deep law and order crisis across the country.
According to the report, of 183,783 burglary investigations closed over the past year, police shut down around 143,000 cases without identifying a single suspect. That amounts to an average of 393 unsolved burglaries every single day. Arrests were made in fewer than 10% of nearly 200,000 investigations.
The picture is even more alarming on a regional level: in a third of the country, police failed to solve a single burglary throughout the entire period under review. Even in roughly 27,500 cases where suspects were identified, not one made it to court.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp responded sharply, branding the figures “totally unacceptable.” He insisted that keeping the public safe must be the number one priority of any government and demanded that Labour take immediate action to get a grip on the situation.
Experts point to deep structural causes. Following sweeping budget cuts in 2010, British police forces lost more than 20,000 officers. Those who remain — often young and inexperienced — are overwhelmed by increasingly complex crimes such as cyber fraud, violent offences and sexual crimes. Burglaries, as a result, end up at the bottom of the pile.
The Sun draws a bleak conclusion: burglary in Britain has been effectively decriminalised. Criminals know full well that they have a better than 90% chance of walking free — and with odds like that, there is little reason for them to stop.