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'Shape up' UK Home Secretary tells the police; 73% cases of thefts closed with no suspects

Secretary Braverman wants officers to use evidence from smart doorbells and dashcams to solve more lower-level crimes. Photo: Leon Neal / Getty Images

Police must investigate every theft and follow all reasonable leads to catch offenders, the home secretary Suella Braverman has said, adding it was “completely unacceptable” that criminals are often “effectively free to break certain laws”.

She wants officers to use evidence from smart doorbells and dashcams to solve more lower-level crimes.

But the Police Federation of England and Wales said forces are already “stretched beyond human limits”.

There are also concerns the approach may take resources away from high-harm crimes such as rape and sexual assault.

And Labour branded it a “staggering admission of 13 years of Tory failure on policing and crime”.

Data shows that, in the year to March, just 4.4% of all theft offences resulted in someone being charged.

New guidance on investigating such crimes is to be issued to all forces in England and Wales.

It follows talks between the Home Office, the National Police Chiefs' Council - which is made up of senior officers from around the country - and the College of Policing, the professional body for policing staff.

Ms Braverman told BBC Breakfast: “There is no such crime as minor crime - whether it's phone theft, car theft, watch theft, whether it's street-level drug-dealing or drug use, the police must now follow every reasonable line of inquiry.”

That means police must follow up on evidence such as CCTV, doorbell videos or GPS tracking of phone location where there is a chance that a suspect may be identified, she said.

She said she had come across “far too many complaints” from people who had things stolen and “calling up the police only to be given a crime reference number for insurance purposes”.

Home Office figures show that, of all theft cases closed in the year to March 2023, the proportion closed because no suspect had been identified was 73.7%, the highest rate for any category of crime.

In the same year, only 3.9% of residential burglaries resulted in someone being charged. The equivalent figure for vehicle theft was 1.8%, while for thefts from the person it was just 0.9%. In London, data from the Met Police showed last year that 250 mobiles phones were stolen a day, an average of one every six minutes