Where have burglaries been reported in West Norfolk and how many have reached a court hearing?

The data, which details street-level crimes and their outcomes, shows that 410 burglaries were reported in West Norfolk over that period.

Analysis of this data has shown that around 6.5 per cent of the 410 cases reported between January and November last year had reached a court hearing, meaning 93.5 per cent of burglaries had not.

Of that number, around 63 per cent were categorised as having a last outcome of ‘investigation complete; no suspect identified’.

While this was the most common outcome for burglaries reported in that time, the figures also show that in one instance a defendant was sent to crown court, in another there was a local resolution, meanwhile four defendants were found not guilty and five offenders were sent to prison.

In 74 cases, the offences were still under investigation, and in 42 cases, police say they were unable to prosecute a suspect.

Analysis of the data has also revealed that the highest number of burglaries were reported in March, with 60, and the lowest reported in September, with 21.

Insurance industry experts said figures such as these can be taken into account when premiums are established.

A spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers said: “It is up to individual insurers how they determine home insurance premiums, many factors including local crime rates are often considered.”

A police spokesman has suggested there are limitations to the data, however, as they say the details of crimes may change after the figures are recorded.

For instance, a crime which was listed as a burglary might later be reclassified as a different type of crime - but this might not be reflected in the data.

And a Home Office spokesperson confirmed that the data provided on data.police.uk is updated monthly, meaning that if a crime has been reclassified, it can be updated as such.

“Guidance is available from the Home Office on how to map crimes, but ultimately it comes down to individual forces as to how they record a crime,” they added.

The police data provides coordinates and a rough location of the crime, by saying the incident took place ‘on or near’ a particular street or landmark – we have then mapped these which readers can view on our online story to see the rough locations of burglaries in West Norfolk between January and November 2019.

The Home Office spokesperson added: “Finding a balance between providing granular crime data and protecting the privacy of victims has been one of the biggest challenges involved in releasing this data.

“It is required to be anonymised, and is done so by grouping individual incidents into large areas, typically street level.

“We consulted heavily with the Information Commissioner’s Office and Data Protection specialists in the run up to releasing this data, and worked within their guidance to create an anonymisation process which adequately minimises privacy risks whilst still meeting transparency goals and being useful to the public.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Norfolk Police said they have dedicated teams who concentrate on burglaries, with “every effort” made to identify those responsible.

A recent report on crime, for the year ending June 2019 from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), says there was a four per cent decrease in burglary according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

“A rise or fall in police recorded crime does not necessarily mean the actual level of crime in society has changed,” the report says.

“The data can be affected by changes in recording practices, policing activity and victims’ willingness to report crime.”

It adds: “Police-recorded burglary offences had shown rises in recent years (six per cent in the year ending March 2018 and three per cent ending March 2017).

“However, figures for the year ending June 2019 show that the number of burglary offences decreased by four per cent.

“We believe this crime type is less affected by recording improvements than other types of crime, as it is generally well-reported by victims and well-recorded by the police.

“CSEW domestic burglary has shown no significant change in recent years.”

Statistics consistently show Norfolk to be one of the least crime-plagued counties in the UK.

The Norfolk Police spokesperson said burglary offences are taken “extremely seriously, especially when people’s homes have been targeted”.

“Each offence, when reported, is reviewed by a detective dergeant and attended, when appropriate by a crime scene investigator.

“We are constantly adapting our tactics to improve the detection of these crimes and our target is to respond within the hour, by a uniform officer and include house to house enquiries, identification of CCTV and a visit by our Scenes of Crime Specialists.

“These crimes are also subject to scrutiny each morning at a district level and force level, and include input from CID, analysts, local policing and our 180 team.

“We have dedicated teams who concentrate on these types of crimes.

“Operation Moonshot was developed to specifically target criminals who use the road network to commit crime, this together with ANPR has already identified various suspects responsible for these types of crime.

“The 180 team also work closely with partners across the criminal justice to ensure we work with the most prolific offenders in order to reduce further offending.

“Whilst we do attend almost all dwelling house burglaries and conduct forensic examinations of them, some suspects are aware of police tactics in relation to forensics and do not tend to leave evidence.

“When they do we submit this for examination, however it is not unusual that a burglary would have an unknown suspect.

“We will always strive to solve dwelling house burglaries as we know how important this is to the public.

“We continue to educate residents about the importance of taking basic crime prevention measures to keep homes secure by locking away valuables, consider security marking property, noting serial numbers and photo-graphing items of value such as jewellery.

“This makes it more difficult to sell on and helps us to recover and return property to owners.

“Every effort is made to identify those responsible and we continue to urge people to report these offences to us.”

• All figures correct at the time of collecting the data.