Preventing Residential Burglary in Cambridge: From Crime Audits to Targeted Strategies

The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC) was formed in 1998 as a result of the merger of the Police Research Group (PRG) and the Research and Statistics Directorate. PRC Unit is now part of the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. The PRC Unit carries out and commissions research in the social and management sciences on policing and crime reduction, broadening out the role that PRG played. The PRC has now combined PRG's two main series into the Police Research Series, continuing PRG's earlier work. This will present research material on crime prevention and detection as well as police management and organisation issues. Research commissioned by PRG will appear as a PRC publication. Throughout the text there may be references to PRG and these now need to be understood as relating to the PRC Unit. Foreword This report describes work undertaken by Cambridgeshire Police in conjunction with the Cambridge Domestic Burglary Task Force to design and implement a strategy to counter domestic burglary in the city. The report is timely. The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act places a statutory duty upon police forces and local authorities to work together to identify and tackle local crime and disorder problems. The Cambridge initiative provides a good example of a crime audit and practical example of the partnership approach encouraged by the Act. The importance of a strategic approach to tackling domestic burglary is reflected in the Government's new crime reduction strategy. The report provides a candid account of the issues involved in implementing such strategies. Police forces and local authorities will be interested in the range of initiatives identified to tackle various aspects of the problem. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the members of the Domestic Burglary Task Force (DBTF) who volunteered to meet on many occasions in order to design and implement the programme elements. Special thanks are given to the Employment Foundation Scheme of Cambridge City Council Planning Department for providing the repeat victim package and to John Houston (formerly of Cambridge City Council) and Nicholas Lidstone (Crime Reduction Unit of Cambridgeshire Police) for chairing the DBTF meetings. We would also like to acknowledge the County Council Crime Reduction Coordination Department for their work in generating a crime audit and the Safer Cambridge Steering Group for supporting and guiding the work of the DBTF. Special thanks are also due to the Southern Division of Cambridgeshire …