8:40am Tuesday 19th January 2010
By Emily Parsons
THE Chief Constable of Essex Police has vowed to slash the number of burglaries – by urging residents to make their homes more secure.
Jim Barker-McCardle said the force deals with up to 30 burglaries a day, but believes it could be cut to single figures.
In mid-November, Essex Police launched Operation Hornet to tackle the number of home burglaries. It is already seeing results, but now Mr Barker-McCardle said he wants homeowners to play their part.
He said: “On a good day we get about 15 or 16 burglaries a day, rising to 30-odd on a bad day. I believe if the public heed our advice, we could reduce it to single figures.
“Essex could easily become the safest place to live in terms of house burglary in the country if we can get that final piece of the puzzle, but we need home owners to work with us.
“Operation Hornet is a long-term and extremely determined campaign to further reduce house burglaries and residential burglaries in Essex.
“Comparatively, Essex is a pretty safe place.
“Incidents of burglary are much lower in Essex than in other parts of the country, but with the active co-operation of householders we can drive levels of house burglary even lower.
“As a police force, we have always, and still do, set out to ruthlessly take down and prevent burglaries happening but there is still more we can do because a lot of the burglaries that occur are still preventative.
“Most burglars are determined, but it is very easy to put them off burgling your house because they don’t want to run unnecessary risks.
“People leave their car keys beside the door and we have arrested people for going equipped for burglary after they have been caught with a fishing rod.”
As part of Operation Hornet, the force has more than 50 officers available to target trouble spots as they occur.
Officers are visiting areas looking for houses which could be obvious targets, such as those with doors left open or all the lights off, and to offer home owners advice.
Leaflets and an online campaign will also spread the message.
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