15. Investigation of a burglary

How do the police investigate when a burglary is committed?

Let us start by defining ‘Burglary’. In the Theft Act of 1968 a person is guilty of burglary if, “he enters a building, as a trespasser, with intent to: steal, assault or rape someone therein, or to cause damage, or having entered the building he steals or assaults some­one.”

Let us consider one possible case.

Your house is locked and secured but unoccupied, it is the middle of the afternoon, a time popular for burglars to be active. A neigh­bour, knowing your house is unoccupied, notices two men at your front door. After knocking at your door one man walks away and stands on a comer nearby. The other goes down the side of your house to the rear. Your neighbour realising something suspicious is happening decides to call the police. She dials 999 and her call is directed via the operator to the Central Communications Complex at New Scotland Yard.

This is the Communications Centre for the Metropolitan Police, the officers on duty receive and deal daily with approximately three to four thousand emergency calls. After recording the call a message is passed by radio to the nearest police patrol car who, responds im­mediately.

On arrival at the house the officers find that a rear window has been smashed and the front door is open. Their first duty is to search your house to see if the burglars are still on the premises and if so to arrest them.

In cases where neighbours see something they think is suspicious and act quickly police often catch burglars on the premises.

However, in this case the burglars have already gone and taken some of your property with them. The officers would speak to the neighbour who raised the alarm to obtain a description of the burglars which would then be radioed to all nearby patrolling police officers.

Enquiries would also be made of any other of your neighbours who were at home at the time to check whether they saw the bur­glars and could assist in the investigation of your burglary. Every effort would be made to contact you, so that you could return to your home as soon as possible. The officer, meanwhile, would either ar­range for your premises to be secured or ask a neighbour to wait in your home until you returned. (As the first police officer on the scene it is as much part of this officers job to ensure that your needs - as a victim of crime - have been met, as it is to initiate preliminaiy enquiries).

Acting in his or her role as investigator, the officer will then ex­amine your home for clues. He or she may call on the services of an Identification Officer to assist in this.

After these enquiries have been completed a crime report is sub­mitted to Crime Desk Supervisor (usually a Detective Sergeant) who would satisfy him or herself that everything possible has been done during the course of the investigation. He or she will then assess the potential solvability of the case and decide whether a Detective Con­stable should be allocated to it. The kind of criteria which helps him or her make this decision are the existence of:

• A partial name or nickname of the suspect.

• A useful description of the suspect or note of distinguishing features.

• A full or partial registration mark of the suspects vehicle.

• A link between the suspect and the scene of crime by finger­print or other forensic evidence.

In our scenario a useful description of the suspects exists so a Detective Constable will carry on the investigation.

It is important for you to establish as soon as possible exactly what property has been stolen and whether any of it can be identified. It is very helpful to keep a note of serial numbers and have your property marked with your post code and the number of your house or flat. Any items that are subsequently received can then be tracked back to you and no one else.

If the crime is not allocated to a Detective to continue the investi­gation it is not forgotten or filed away Details of the property stolen are circulated and any fingerprints found are submitted for examina­tion and comparison to those of known criminals in an effort to find the thieves. The report is kept at the Police Station and can be reinvestigated if any further information comes to light. As well as circulating a list of the property, if it is of a high value or rare and you have photographs of it, it may be possible to publicise them in the local press or in a crime appeal programme on television.