Beating burglary together: one year on

Last year, in June 2023, we launched a campaign to tackle burglary.

Through this initiative, we aimed to enlist the support of the people of Lincolnshire in “beating burglary together” with the intention being to provide an insight into what we do, showing our commitment to protecting communities and bringing perpetrators to justice.

This is an ongoing campaign with the ambition of enhancing trust and confidence in our service and building a more informed understanding of who is at risk of burglary and what can be done to reduce that risk by highlighting crime prevention recommendations and encouraging reporting of information and suspicious activity.

A year-on-year comparison shows a 19% reduction in burglary from 1642 incidents in 22/23 reducing to 1332 incidents recorded in 23/24.* Reductions were recorded across the force in every district with the most significant reduction in East Lindsey.

Detective Chief Inspector Jo Fortune said, “We are proud of this reduction in burglary, but we know that we can never become complacent. This work needs to continue, and we are now planning for how we build upon the achievements and good work over the last year.

“We understand how invasive and upsetting it can be to become a victim of burglary. If you ask Lincolnshire people what they worry about, this is an area that comes up time and again. We wanted reassure people by showing the good work that goes on behind the scenes, to reduce burglary and protect people, but also ensure they are armed with knowledge of where the risks are, and how to minimise that risk.”

As well as general seasonal advice, our campaign focused on hotspot areas and trends in burglary. For example we targeted communications around student house shares in Lincoln, and caravans on the east coast. The latter was delivered in conjunction with the Summertime Policing Plan which included high visibility patrols as well as plain clothes officers, drone support and additional resources.

East Lindsey saw the highest reduction with 160 less offences than in the previous financial year (from 465 incidents in 22/23 to 305 in 23/24, a decrease of 34%). Vital to this success was our work with East Lindsey District Council and local Caravan Park owners.

Through the campaign we also aimed to showcase all the different roles of people involved in the fight against burglary issuing eight ‘people profiles’ that showed members of staff and officers, and the work they do behind the scenes to contribute towards keeping the county safe. Our profiles highlighted the work of the Criminal Investigation Department, Intelligence, Crime Scene Investigations, Crime Reduction, Integrated Offender Management, Victim Lincs and the Digital Forensics Unit.

DCI Jo Fortune said, “We are committed to showing what we do behind the scenes alongside keeping you informed of emerging risks, trends and hotspots. We want to make sure that everyone is equipped with crime prevention advice and knows the simple steps to reducing your risk. We plan to continue our campaign, with tailored and targeted communications directed to areas and groups that are potentially more vulnerable, alongside general seasonal crime prevention and home security advice.”

With summer on the horizon, our next focus in the campaign will be the challenges of the warmer weather and the holiday season. We know that opportunistic burglars favour an open window or door and we see incidents of burglary peak across the county in the summer months.

DCI Jo Fortune said, “The summer brings an increased risk of burglary. We are reminding people to lock up and not leave anything tempting on show.

“If you are heading off on holiday you might want to think about any visual indications that your home is empty. Keeping an eye out for neighbours’ homes and small things like bringing their bin in can be a great help.”

*Figures compare the financial year from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 with the same period in 2023/2024.  

 Our commitment

• We are committed to attend all burglaries of homes*
• We are committed to regional collaboration to tackle cross border crime.
• We will use local channels (e.g. local police Facebook pages and Nextdoor) to report on burglaries that have occurred in your area.
• We will share news on arrests, charges and court cases.
• We will provide timely insight into emerging trends and series.
• We will continue to share our efforts behind the scenes.

*For any offences that take place in a shed, outbuilding or vacant caravan, we will assess the threat, harm and risk and make an assessment on whether we attend. Occupied caravans would be treated as we treat the burglary of a home.

Crime prevention advice

Here, you can find a wealth of information on protecting your home.    

This includes information on window and door security, a checklist for leaving your home secure, property marking and other home security tips.

Contacting us

If you see a crime in progress call 999.

For reporting suspicious activity or information about someone you believe may be involved in committing burglary or selling stolen goods, call 101. Alternatively, you can anonymously call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.