xIn the latest of our special reports on silent crimes, the Lancashire Post and the Blackpool Gazette have been investigating burglaries across the county and what the Police are doing to tackle the ongoing issue. Our Silent Crimes campaign, run in conjunction with our sister titles across the National World, shines a light on those crimes that go unreported or under-investigated by the authorities.
Burglaries have been impacting many places, businesses, and people across Lancashire, whether commercial Burglariesburglaries of businesses or residential burglaries of people'speople's homes. The ongoing issue forced Lancashire Police to launch Operation Defender in December 2022. The operation aims to crack down on residential Burglary. Operation Defender has led to a 50% reduction in crimes countywide since January 2019.
Inspector Jon Campbell-smith of the Lancashire Police said: “Burglary is one of those crimes that are too intrusive to people's lives, whether it be residential Burglary, the effect it has on someone who is the victim of that is enormous, so any burglary that takes place is a serious matter.
Burglaries have been impacting many places, businesses, and people across Lancashire, whether commercial Burglariesburglaries of businesses or residential burglaries of people'speople's homes. The ongoing issue forced Lancashire Police to launch Operation Defender in December 2022. The operation aims to crack down on residential Burglary. Operation Defender has led to a 50% reduction in crimes countywide since January 2019.
Inspector Jon Campbell-smith of the Lancashire Police said: “Burglary is one of those crimes that are too intrusive to people's lives, whether it be residential Burglary, the effect it has on someone who is the victim of that is enormous, so any burglary that takes place is a serious matter.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Luke Patrick and I'm a reporter for the Lancashire Post and the Blackpool
00:03Gazette. This week's silent crime article will look at burglaries across Lancashire
00:08and what the police are doing to tackle them. I spoke to Inspector John Kemble-Smith, PC
00:13Jack McGoldrick and Sergeant Sean Dixon from the Lancashire Police.
00:16So, can you introduce yourself and your position?
00:21Yes, my name is Brian Roberts and I'm chairman of the Brunswick Ward Police and Communities
00:26Together group. What comes to mind when I say the word burglary to you? Well, we have
00:36commercial burglary, which we've just had an incident on the ward, which has been solved.
00:42Residential burglary we don't seem to have a great deal of.
00:53How often are residents saying that this has happened?
00:57As I say, this latest incident, I think it was about eight weeks ago. There were actually
01:0311 young chaps convicted of nine counts of burglaries with one of criminal damage and
01:14one of death and he was given a 12-month constable sentence. That was with the police working
01:20in conjunction with the PAC group. One of our residents was able to provide CCTV, which
01:26linked all the incidents together.
01:30Could you tell me a little bit about those incidents? Previously you mentioned the KFC
01:34and the Costa were at today?
01:36Yes, from what I know, the masonry was stolen from the wall of one of the residents and
01:47used to break the windows at Costa and KFC. Once the windows had been broken, the place
01:59was burgled.
02:01What was taken?
02:03As far as I know, the tip jar was taken. As far as anything else, I couldn't tell you
02:09much.
02:11Do you have any other businesses or do you have a general estimate of how much damage
02:17would have cost?
02:19I know one of the windows to replace was about £3,000, so quite a substantial amount.
02:29If a business is losing that off their overheads, it can have quite an impact.
02:35What do you think is the reason people don't burgle these places?
02:41There are various reasons. I should imagine the coincidence of finances, the neighbourhood,
02:51drugs of course are prevalent, feeding habits. People are predisposed to taking the easy
03:05way out and taking money from other people.
03:09What do you think needs to be done to tackle burglary?
03:15I know the police are doing what they can. The rate of crime in general is quite high.
03:25We were very fortunate to have a very good outcome with the residents providing proof
03:33that cleared up 11 incidents. As far as burglary as a whole, I would just tell residents to
03:43be careful. Make sure doors and windows are locked. Keep temptation out of the way. Don't
03:51have anything visible in the house that would tempt a burglar.
03:56How significant is the problem of burglars in Lancashire and Blackpool at the moment?
04:04Burglary is one of those crimes that is so intrusive into people's lives, whether it
04:10be a commercial burglary or residential burglary. The effect it has on a person that is a victim
04:16of that is enormous. Any burglary that takes place is a serious matter. It is taken seriously
04:24in the whole of Lancashire. In Blackpool, we have a number of issues, whether it be
04:30residential burglaries in our communities or commercial burglaries in our town centre
04:36areas. Evil crime has a lasting effect, not only on the victim but the wider community
04:44as well. There is that fear of crime. You know your neighbour has been burgled. The
04:49local shop that you go into has been burgled. The effect that can have on a business when
04:56they are victim to burglaries can almost be ending for them. It can end their business
05:01depending on what has taken place. We don't take it lightly when a burglary is reported.
05:09Where possible, and it's not always possible because obviously evidence needs to be obtained,
05:15so you can identify a suspect. We will do our utmost to try and bring them to justice,
05:21which is what has happened on this occasion, a series of burglaries that was identified
05:27in Blackpool by PC McAuliffe.
05:30Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
05:33Around a year ago, we had a big pattern in the town centre, commercial burglaries. In
05:40the end, roughly at the time we had about 30 or 40 within a short span of a couple of
05:46months maximum. That caused a lot of tension between the business owners, residents and
05:51people who had a vested interest in the town centre. It did cause a bit of an issue. Then
05:59fast forward a year to a couple of months ago, I noticed a bit of a trend start again.
06:05I think it was a lot lower than 30 or 40 this time, it was down to 7, 8, 9, 10, 20s when
06:11we noticed it. I think it was important to flag it up as early as possible so it could
06:16prevent another big issue or wider issue. Like I said, I did some scanning, noticed
06:21a big trend again and tried to look at it as early as possible.
06:25Where were, you talked about the 30s and 40s and then 20s and 30s, what kind of places
06:32were these burglaries taking place?
06:35They were all pretty much in the town centre. There are all of them. There were a couple
06:41that were bordering onto Brunswick. I think there were four or five in Brunswick and the
06:47rest in the midtown centre. All the same pattern, all the same MR. Same sort of things were
06:54being stolen. Same issue with how they were breaking into buildings, smashing windows
06:59again in that way. But yeah, they were all within a certain radius in the town centre.
07:05So how was the person who was doing all this eventually arrested and stopped?
07:13I can't remember the first issue, how we came across him actually. But throughout all of
07:19them it was about different methods, whether it be forensically linked CCTV trolls with
07:24the council. So say a shop had broken into overnight, we'd track the movements and things
07:31like that and see if we can recognise them on CCTV and send out bulletins to try and
07:35get them recognised while we were waiting for the friendlies to come back. And then
07:39we just linked them by MRs as well. So we managed to get a good result by all those
07:43different methods.
07:44How have you worked with the Brunswick PACT group to address burglars and stuff like that?
07:51Don't mean to jump in.
07:52Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
07:53So Jack contemplates how hard this actually was. So originally there were several burglaries
07:59coming in. And in the grand scheme of things, when you get hundreds of blocks coming in
08:04for practical, it's quite hard to identify patterns of crime trends. Jack managed to
08:10notice that the way in which the crime was being committed, there was distinctive similarities
08:16between them that was ongoing. So as you said, smashing using bricks, using rocks to smash
08:21windows to gain entry, going for tip jars, going for charity boxes, similar things of
08:26that nature. What we didn't know is who the offender was. We just knew it's going to be
08:31the same offender committing these crimes. We brought it up at the local PACT meeting
08:35with Brian Chairs. During that PACT meeting, residents came forward with CCTV. That's at
08:40the time we didn't actually have. That CCTV allowed us to begin to identify potential
08:45suspects that had been committed. For example, one resident's wall had been damaged by the
08:51offender. And you can see him picking up the bricks, walking over to one of the business
08:55establishments that was then burgled. We were then able to use Jack's work that he collated
09:01through similar what we call MOs, which is how the crime is committed, to then link him
09:06to a series of other burglaries across Brunswick and across the town centre. This allowed Jack
09:11to then start collecting further CCTV, further forensic evidence and further witness testimony
09:17to basically create a case against him that we then ultimately charged for. And he's gone
09:22to court and gone to prison as a result. So it was a great team effort between the PACT
09:28providing that evidence that wasn't available at the time. It was a massive skill of Jack
09:32to be able to piece together those missing pieces.
09:34Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about Operation Defender, which is the thing used to tackle
09:40burglaries across the town centre?
09:42Yeah, so Operation Defender was launched about a year and a half ago. Every residential burglary
09:50that happens within Lancashire should receive an officer that is deployed to meet the victim
09:59in person. There are always going to be scenarios that means an officer isn't deployed. For
10:05example, I've seen ones where the homeowners are away. But in general, every single residential
10:11burglary will have an officer deployed in person to start the investigation and take
10:16down details. What Op Defender did is bridge the gap between the investigation and the
10:23officer attending to get the basic details and then informing the wider community of
10:29what's going on. So Op Defender, we deploy a Neighbourhood Policing Officer, usually
10:35one of our PCSOs, who will go and visit the victim's address. They'll give them crime
10:41prevention advice and reassurance. They will also visit a number of neighbouring addresses.
10:47They'll just warn the residents of what's taking place. Whenever a burglary happens,
10:56stats would suggest that that area is now at high risk of being another victim of a
11:04burglary. Because from a burglar's point of view, they've managed to get away and they've
11:09got whatever they've taken. So in their eyes, it's an easy target, that street now. So I
11:14think they're two-thirds more likely to have a repeat burglary on that street. So Op Defender
11:21ensures that the residents and community know what's going on, that it's not just the victim
11:26that we give crime prevention advice to. We give crime prevention advice to potential
11:30victims as well to prevent further burglaries. And we just identify if there's any potential
11:39evidence for the investigating officer that might be missed or not even identified as
11:44being available on the first time that they've been out. And it builds those community relationships
11:49between the local policing team and the residents as well. And we use our messaging service
11:54called Language Talkie to put out key messages which we can break down to individual streets,
12:00individual wards, or black or white, depending on why we want that message to go. Just to
12:06let them know what's going on and what we're doing as a place to prevent it. So that's
12:09the key element of Op Defender. It just brings that gap between investigation and community
12:14reassurance.
12:15Yeah. You said that when people are burgled, you'll talk to their neighbours and surrounding
12:20area about the crime prevention. What can people do to make themselves safe against
12:27burglaries?
12:28I mean, there are a number of preventative tools and measures that people can do.
12:36Really simple ones, such as the basics, making sure your valuables aren't on show, whether
12:43that be in vehicles, in your windows, doors are locked, especially in cars at night, properties,
12:49et cetera. Even just simple elements like how your garden looks. Something as simple
12:57as a row of a few bushes, a gate, or some sort of even a mini fence is a mental barrier
13:03to a burglar than walking down the street and they see that you have a line across your
13:08property and already they're thinking they're going to have security or some sort of measures
13:12in place. So I'll skip to the next address where there's nothing. And then there are
13:17obviously more measures which require some sort of financial investment, but it could
13:22be lighting that comes on at the end of the driveway, doorbells. We are seeing more and
13:27more being put onto people's front doors. I see this where a window bell footage, a
13:34potential burglar will walk up as soon as they see that camera, they'll walk away and
13:39leave. It's just simple measures like that and just being aware of what's going on. And
13:47if you do see anything suspicious, then to call the police to let us know.
13:52What's been the burglary that has been the worst, that's caused the most damage or anything
13:59like that? Is there one that you can skip to?
14:03In terms of the series that Jack's investigated or just in general?
14:08Just in general I think.
14:11I think burglary is a highly individual crime. So when some tips are stolen off a Costa worker
14:18it might have a significant impact, even though it might be low monetary value. Whilst an elderly
14:23person may have high value stolen and that will significantly affect their lives. So
14:28it's highly personal, somebody breaking into your house, your business and what they take.
14:32So despite the value or the severity of the damage caused, I think it's always highly
14:37personal. It's always highly impactful. That's why we look at what's called super cocooning,
14:41which is the academic theory behind Defender. And also look at the target harboring that
14:47the inspector talked about. There's also the community initiatives such as PACT, Neighbourhood
14:51Watch, that sort of facilitates the information exchange and makes sure the community is working
14:56together to make that area the least desirable place for criminals to target.
15:03Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Gunter has said, burglary is an invasive,
15:07damaging crime that not only results in financial harm but can cause long term trauma for anyone
15:12who suddenly becomes a victim. Everyone has the right to be safe in their own home and
15:16through Operation Defender, Lancashire Constabulary are taking positive, proactive steps to target
15:21prolific offenders and support victims throughout any investigation, working to prevent people
15:27from committing these crimes in the first place.
15:31As Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner, I will continue to hold Lancashire Constabulary
15:34to account to ensure residential burglary reduces, victims are supported and all reasonable
15:41lines of enquiry are followed, sending the clear message that we will target burglars
15:45and put them behind bars.