Police federation pours cold water on recent pledge for officers to attend every residential burglary

New home secretary and Fareham MP Suella Braverman wrote an open letter to police chiefs on September 25 addressing the need to restore public trust in the police.

In it, she said: ‘To put it simply, the public wants to know that an officer will visit them after a crime such as burglary.’

Meanwhile, Donna Jones, crime commissioner for Hampshire, and acting chief constable Ben Snuggs, backed the move, stating officers will now attend every case of residential burglary.

But federation chair Zoë Wakefield said this was already happening in the main.

Zoë said: ‘We are already attending the vast majority of dwelling burglaries, so hopefully it’s not going to make too much of a difference to officers. Dwelling burglary is a horrible crime and everyone does deserve to have the best service from the police when they are a victim of burglary.

‘If a burglary’s not attended, it’s not because officers don’t want to and they don’t want to give that good service. It’s because there aren’t enough officers. But we are already attending the majority of them.’

Ms Jones said previously: ‘Domestic burglaries are an abhorrent crime and victims deserve an initial response and thorough follow up.

‘So often we hear about crimes that have been reported but haven’t received the police response we expect, but I know police officers want to investigate these crimes, and I know they want to get justice for victims.’