Taking a tough stance on burglars in the St Albans district

It’s a sad fact, but as the nights draw in, opportunists take advantage of unlit homes, but St Albans district officers have been taking a proactive approach to burglars.

“We have robust plans in place to prevent burglaries,” said St Albans district Chief Inspector Martin Turpin.  “This includes enhanced overt and covert patrols across the district.  We are also actively pursuing identified burglars and ensuring we explore all possible avenues to get people before the courts.

“Obviously we cannot be on every street 24 hours a day, but the best thing we can do is to prevent burglaries from happening in the first place.  I’d like to remind residents to make sure they lock their windows and doors, use timer switches on lights, consider investing in alarms, CCTV or doorbell cameras, and report any suspicious behaviour. These simple steps could help prevent you becoming a victim of burglary.”

If you require further crime prevention advice, contact your local neighbourhood officer or PCSO.

A recent burglary was prevented in Chiswell Green, an attempted burglary happened in Park Street and bikes were stolen in Harpenden:  

A neighbour noticed a light on an address in Willow Way in Chiswell Green at 7.45pm on 8 November. Officers quickly attended and the offenders escaped empty-handed. Enquiries continue to identify the suspects.

An attempted burglary was captured on CCTV in Mayflower Road in Park Street just after 8pm on 5 November.

Three bikes were stolen from an address in East Common in Harpenden on 9 November.

If you are burgled, what exactly can burglary victims expect from the police?

When someone dials 999 to report a burglary, with intruders still at the address, all available police units will attend.  Some officers will go to the address whilst back up officers will do an area search in the nearby streets and if appropriate, will call on the assistance of the tri-force police helicopter, drone and dog units to help track down the burglars. 

When a burglary is discovered retrospectively, officers will attend and take a crime report from the victim and conduct an initial investigation, initial house-to-house enquiries, crime scene preservation and they will offer victim support. Scenes of crime officers may attend to obtain forensic evidence.  The Local Crime Unit will take on the investigation to preserve evidence, see if there are any similarities to other burglaries and identify potential offenders.  They will also gather CCTV and review information (intelligence).

Officers will also look at the type of burglary, for example, if they specifically targeted an address for high value gold or high value vehicles, whether it is a daytime or night-time burglary, any series or ‘hotpots’, how they got into the address (the MO modus operandi), whether it was via the front or back of the property and whether they conducted a tidy or untidy search.

Officers will also be supported by other departments across the force and work closely with other Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) and neighbouring forces as well as our Special Constables (volunteers with full police powers).  Some of the work is overt but a lot of it is covert, including the use of analysts to look back historically to predict where the hotspots may be, to help allocate police resources.

Ch Insp Turpin added: “Please take photos of your valuable items and record unique reference numbers. You can report a burglary online or call 101.  Please do not report crime on social media.  We need to be made aware straight away, so we have the best chance of catching the offenders and preventing further offences.”

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