Redbridge police chief pledges to tackle sky-high burglary rate

With burglary rates in Redbridge the second highest of all London boroughs, a chief inspector heading a dedicated police squad has insisted he will not “accept the status quo”.

Levels of burglary across Redbridge last year sat at the highest of all 32 London boroughs apart from Brent.

Neighbouring boroughs Barking and Dagenham and Newham’s burglary rates were all significantly less than Redbridge’s in December.

Around 270 reports of burglary were made in December, while Newham police attended 166 and Barking and Dagenham police were called to 184.

Redbridge crime manager Det Ch Insp Stewart Hill said: “Our suspect detection rate is currently 5.7 per cent, down from last year’s 6.4 per cent during the same period.” He added: “However, we believe this year’s figure is likely to improve in the next few weeks.”

The burglary response unit was recently restructured by forming a dedicated burglary squad focused purely on burglaries as opposed to both robberies and burglaries.

The burglary squad is aiming to achieve a zero per cent increase in burglaries and a 10 per cent suspect detection rate by the end of March, according to Mr Hill.

He added: “I accept that this will be very challenging, but I am not prepared to accept the current status quo.”

The borough is 8.1 per cent above last year’s burglary figure, but in the year prior to this burglary had increased by 25 per cent.

“This shows we are moving in the right direction,” added Mr Hill.