Action needed as none of the 165 burglaries reported in Outer Rothwell in the last three years is solved - Andrew Vine

That is the shocking conclusion to be drawn after it emerged last week that none of the 165 burglaries reported in Outer Rothwell in the last three years has been solved. Not one, despite visits from police and scenes of crime investigators and the scrutiny of CCTV.

This is the worst rate of unsolved burglaries anywhere in England and Wales, which is dismal even by the woeful standards across the country, where police fail to solve a single burglary in 48 per cent of neighbourhoods. These are shameful statistics, compounded by the Home Office’s admission that the proportion of burglaries resulting in a charge fell to 3.9 per cent last year compared with 4.6 per cent in 2022.

In other words, matters are getting worse and last year 96.1 per cent of burglars got away with it, which can only add to the distress and fury of their victims who surely feel let down.

West Yorkshire Police’s response to the Rothwell figures said in part that “our detection rates are relatively in line with other police forces in England and Wales”, which is undoubtedly true but not remotely reassuring, since it effectively means, “we’re no worse than anywhere else”.

Each of the other police forces in Yorkshire could probably say the same thing in all honesty and produce figures to back it up, but that’s missing the point when the Home Office statistics tell a story of appalling clear-up rates across the country.

Being no worse than anywhere else just isn’t good enough and does nothing to dispel the increasingly widespread public feeling that certain categories of crime are not investigated with anything like sufficient rigour.

Those who commit property crime, steal or break into vehicles, or go shoplifting largely get a free ride. Victims who see nothing from an investigation apart from the issuing of a crime number know it, police officers know it, and the villains know it.

A visit from a sympathetic police officer does not mitigate the overwhelming likelihood that nobody will be caught and stolen belongings won’t be recovered.

A weary resignation about a lot of crime has become embedded in the public consciousness as a result, with much going unreported because there is no point.

Sometimes, victims don’t even get the visit, like an electrician I know whose van was burgled while he was working inside a house in Leeds a couple of weeks ago.

His tools and supplies for the next job were stolen, but when he rang West Yorkshire Police to report the theft, he was told an officer would not be coming out to investigate as there was no prospect of catching the culprit.

That was it. Case closed in a five-minute phone call and another statistic for the next round of Home Office figures. But it’s not case closed for a hard-working victim, whose earnings for that month were wiped out by the costs of replacing the stolen tools and getting his van repaired.

And the thief? Well, it’s on to the next workman’s van he finds on a quiet residential street, confident that nobody is even bothering to look for him.

This is a self-perpetuating cycle. If hardly anybody is being brought to justice, where is the deterrent for offenders? As fear of arrest and punishment fades, it can only embolden the dishonest.

The figures on clear-up rates tell a story of declining police effectiveness. That’s an unpalatable charge to level at a service which rightly retains a high degree of public support, but until it is acknowledged and the causes identified and addressed, no improvement is likely.

As with so many other public services, chronic underfunding of the police is a key factor.

But the performance and priorities of individual forces cannot be overlooked, in particular the emphasis placed on neighbourhood policing to provide a high-profile presence which is both reassuring to communities and a visible deterrent.

Residents of Rothwell, speaking after their community made headlines for all the wrong reasons, said they barely saw any police officers around. If the law-abiding citizens have noticed that, the law-breakers will have noted it too.