Glasgow is the third worst area in Scotland for housebreak-ins, according to new figures.
The five-year average from 2018-2022 puts Glasgow as having 30 per 10,000 housebreaks. It is beaten only by Edinburgh, with a rate of 40 per 10,000 and Dundee with a rate of 32 per 10,000. The stats come from the Scottish Government.
Despite these figures, housebreaking has fallen by 40 per cent between the year ending June 2018 and the year ending June 2022 (from 14,521 to 8,705 crimes). The reduction has been driven by the numerous lockdowns over the past three years and the rise in the number of people working from home, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
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However even at the current rate, there are 24 house break-ins every day across Scotland.
In August 2021, thieves stole gold jewellery and watches worth a total of £200,000 in a 10-day spate of house break-ins in Beith, Bathgate, Stranraer, Cambuslang, Paisley, Stepps, East Kilbride and Glasgow. Police Scotland are investigating the linked crimes as part of Operation Suitcase, launched in response to a significant number of Asian homes being broken into and high-value gold and other expensive items being stolen.
Earlier this month, Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke warned that police south of the Border needed to up their game after Home Office figures showed that only 3.7 per cent of burglaries resulted in a charge. He said that burglaries must not be treated as "minor crimes" and said they "strike at the heart of how safe people feel in their own homes and communities".
In response, a former police officer, Fred McManus, wrote to the Scottish Daily Mail to offer his own view. He agreed that housebreaking was a "despicable crime that deserves a quality police response and deterrent sentencing" but warned it was now regarded as less serious than hate crime.
Mr McManus, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, wrote: "Senior officers consider hate crime, such as an unpleasant remark or internet post, as more worthy of investigation than home violation. The pursuit of diversity takes precedence over crime fighting.
"These skewed priorities need to be reversed. An officer who thinks such matters take priority over housebreaking has never had to console someone whose home has been violated, their sense of safety destroyed and their possessions stolen or discarded like rubbish.
"Any police officer who does not regard catching housebreakers as a priority should be told firmly they are in the wrong job."
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