A £26 million Home Office initiative has cut burglary by 20 per cent in crime hotspots over the last three years, Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears said today.
The Home Office has today published an evaluation of its Reducing Burglary Initiative which, through 63 projects around the country, has resulted in fewer burglaries. The project funded innovative schemes with local partners to tackle burglaries.
Hazel Blears announced the findings of the reports today as she addressed crime reduction workers at a conference in Belfast.
Ms Blears said:
"Burglary is a serious crime and the effect on victims can be traumatic. With the help of the Reducing Burglary Initiative, communities across the country have benefited from a 20 per cent drop in burglary – meaning fewer victims. Burglary rates in communities around the country have been turned around thanks to funding from the initiative and the joined up approach between police and the local communities.
"Anti-burglary strategies such as property marking, improving fencing and awareness campaigns have had a tremendous impact on burglary rates. The evaluation published today will help more areas cut burglary by sharing methods that have had impressive results and made a real difference to people’s lives.
"Burglary has fallen by 41 per cent since 1997 and the chances of being a victim of crime are at the lowest in 20 years. We are not complacent however, and are working to bring crime down even further. We have record police officers on our streets and are reforming the criminal justice system to bring greater numbers of offenders to justice. We have also introduced a White Paper and Bill to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour, the low-level crime and thuggery that makes life a misery for so many in our communities".
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Reducing Burglary Initiative (RBI) was launched in 1998. In 1999, under the first phase of the initiative, 63 projects in England and Wales successfully bid for funding to identify ways of reducing burglary in areas which had experienced at least twice the national recorded domestic burglary rate for each of the previous three years.
Each of the Phase One RBI projects were evaluated in 1998 and evaluations completed in by independent evaluators. Results from the initiative and details of four successful projects and their evaluations are published today by the Home Office and can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.goc.uk/rds
Burglary reduction gains in many of the RBI projects was sustained into 2001. Further evaluation work is being undertaken to examine the extent of these gains, and to see if they are still being sustained. Best practice and details of the successful measures will be disseminated to regional practitioners and fed into ACPO good practice material.
The chances of being a victim of burglary are lower than at any time in the last 20 years. There is an 11 per cent drop in burglary over the last year (British Crime Survey). Police recorded burglary figures are now 7.5 per cent lower than in 1998/9 and 26 per cent lower than in 1996/7. According to the BCS the number of burglaries has fallen by over 26 per cent since 1999 and by over 40 per cent since 1997.
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