A burglary takes place in Lincoln every seven hours, study finds

A house in Lincoln is burgled every seven hours and four minutes, with over 65% of cases closed without a suspect being identified – according to a recent study.

Data collected by home security experts The Safe Shop reveals that 1,239 burglaries were reported to Lincolnshire Police between March 2014 and March 2015, with an average of three burglaries a day in the city.

Vehicles are broken into almost as frequently, with a vehicle crime incident being reported every nine and a half hours.

Analysis of stats by The Safe Shop, concerning incidents of crime in Lincoln.

The analysis was of data collected from 45 different police constabularies across the UK, made accessible due to the Government Open License for public sector information.

Data was taken from a number of different crime categories, with bicycle theft, personal theft, burglary and vehicle crime, analysed for frequency and clearance rate.

Of these, the crime with the worst clearance rate was bicycle theft, with 82.10% of cases closed without a suspect being identified.

A College of Policing study found that low clearance rates may be due to increasing police time being spent on public protection work.

Steven White, head of the Police Federation commented earlier this year: “83% of calls to forces do not concern incidents of crime [which] calls into question government claims that the police should just be measured on efforts to cut crime.

“Policing pubs and clubs; house-to-house inquiries and taking statements are just some of the key areas of police work not covered in crime statistics.”

Anthony Neary, security expert at The Safe Shop added: “There are an astounding number of burglaries in the UK every year.

“Even though crime numbers in general are slightly down, these statistics highlight how important it is for us to be vigilant about our home security. That means locking your house and keeping your valuables hidden and safe when you’re not at home.”

The data collected for the same year in Lincoln also highlighted that there were 1,588 reports of shoplifting in the city, 69 reports relating to the possession of a weapon and 56 reports relating to robbery.

To curb crime in Lincoln, The Safe Shop has created a crime prevention guide so that local residents can do all they can to prevent themselves from being burgled or stolen from.