Catching burglars remains to be a high precedence for Britain’s police forces, a senior officer has insisted.

But Deputy Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith stated they've been attempting “to balance a whole host of demands” – together with spending “millions of hours with mental health patients in hospitals”.

He spoke to the Daily Express amid issues over the shockingly low numbers of thieves being caught.

Out of 148,764 residential burglaries recorded by forces in England and Wales in 2021/22, simply 5,236 – 3.5 per cent – led to a cost or summons.

But DCC Franklin-Smith, the NPCC’s lead for housebreaking, dismissed claims that fixing break-ins had taken a backseat in crime-fighting.

He stated: “I’m not sure I’d agree that it’s slipped down the list of priorities.

“We’re trying to, I guess, balance a whole host of demands and competing things the public wants us to deal with. And we haven’t got an infinite number of resources.”

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He added: “Officers have spent over a million hours sitting with mental health patients at hospitals awaiting assessment – the equivalent of attending 600,000 burglaries.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council has stated all forces are actually attending each break-in to assemble proof. And victims can anticipate officers to attend inside 4 hours of calling 999 or 101.

DCC Franklin-Smith stated: “For most forces, it’s reasonable to say that within a four-hour period...you would expect attendance.” But he additionally needs to see extra forces organising specialist housebreaking items.

He stated: “It’s not rocket science. If you’ve got teams of detectives and proactive uniformed officers on dedicated teams, that does have a correlation with increased detections.”

Police chiefs will obtain a brand new “doctrine” setting out “minimum standards” officers should meet whereas investigating housebreaking. DCC Franklin-Smith stated: “A lot of this is back to basics, but it’s about call handlers getting the right information in the first place.

“And there’s a lot in there around the role of crime scene investigators.”

He additionally revealed some forces are asking housebreaking victims to make use of video instruments, reminiscent of Zoom, to point out forensic officers round their houses.

He added: “If they identify available opportunities, they would follow that up with a physical attendance.”