8 out of 10 Shropshire house burglaries unsolved

Eight out of every 10 house burglaries in Shropshire went unsolved last year, shock new figures revealed today.

And the police statistics show that burglary in the county is on the rise. West Mercia Police recorded 665 burglaries across Shropshire in 2011/12 – significantly up from 526 in the previous 12 months.

Just 21.2 per cent of the crimes were recorded as solved last year, although that figure is slightly higher than the force's target of 21 per cent.

It was also an improvement on 2010/11 – when 18.8 per cent were recorded as solved in the Shropshire County Council area.

In Telford & Wrekin the detection rate was even lower, although the number of burglaries was also lower than in the wider Shropshire area.

Only 18 per cent were solved in the last 12 months – down from 18.7 per cent the year before. The number of house burglaries fell from 685 to 643.

The figures come as a report to the West Mercia Police Authority this afternoon reveals that house burglaries have fallen to their lowest level in seven years.

Across West Mercia, headed by Chief Constable David Shaw, a total of 3,027 house burglaries were recorded during 2011/12 – a fall of 3.4 per cent on the previous 12 months. But only 20.6 per cent of house burglaries were recorded as solved.

"West Mercia remains a low crime area – in 2011/12 there were a total of 69,582 offences recorded, which represents 3.4 per cent decrease on 2010/11," said the report.

"House burglary is now at its lowest level for seven years. The solved rate for house burglary in 2011/12 was 20.6 per cent which, whilst slightly below our target of 21 per cent, is an improvement on our 2010/11 results of 19.8 per cent."