6
Aug
2015
By Calvin at 14:00 GMT, 10 years ago
In the early hours of last night I caught this news item on Sky News. It’s almost one of those stories you would classify as ‘you couldn’t make it up’. However, having read the account I can now see what they were trying to do and with police budgets as they are I can fully understand why.
It starts:
Leicestershire Police admits only sending forensic officers to homes with an even number during a three-month trial.
A police force fully investigated attempted burglaries only at homes with an even number in a bid to see how they could save money.
Leicestershire Police wanted to find out whether it had any impact on victim satisfaction rates.
They sent police officers to meet all householders affected, but did not send any forensic staff to those who lived in odd-numbered houses - meaning fingerprints were not taken.
The only exceptions were when the occupant was old or vulnerable, or the burglary was part of a series.
The trial only involved attempted burglaries.
Police chiefs found that the three-month experiment had "no noticeable impact on victim satisfaction".
Read the rest here: http://news.sky.com/story/1530720/police-skipped-break-in-attempts-at-odd-numbers
This reminds me of some research I was doing in the early 1990s into rear accessed burglary using alleyways. I plotted the burglaries along several roads of semi-detached homes in Hanwell, London W7 and to my amazement I found that around 85% of the burglaries had been at the left-hand house as viewed from the street. Handedness plays a huge role in nature and it seems like it does in burglary too. Perhaps the burglar was left or right-handed and had a preference for a left-hand house – I’ll never know.
Sadly I no longer have that research and anyway had to move onto something else, but wasn’t that weird!
