THE percentage of burglaries across the Maldon and Dengie area where a suspect has been identified has increased by more than 18 per cent, latest figures revealed.

Between April 1 and October 5, 2017, the number of offences reported to Essex Police was 98, compared with 82 for the same period in 2016.

The solved rate also rose from 1.22 per cent to 19.39 per cent.

Both these figures are higher than the force average.

Det Insp Rob Kirby, from Chelmsford CID, said: “Burglaries are horrible, invasive crimes that can leave the victim feeling unsafe in their own home.

“We had an issue with burglaries across the two districts and it was something we had to tackle.”

DI Kirby said many of the burglaries can be hard to solve as they take place at night or where there are no witnesses.

He added there had been a trend of offenders coming from out of the county, committing burglaries and then leaving, making them difficult to trace.

“All this means solved rates – which basically indicate where we’ve been able to identify a suspect – can be quite low,” he said.

“That’s not just an issue here but something that can be seen across the country.”

An operation to tackle the issue started at the beginning of the year and has seen some success.

DI Kirby and his team have focussed on identifying trends, including the type of property being targeted in a particular area, the time offences are being carried out, or the way a burglary is committed.

He said: “We can then use that information to help us decide where best to use our resources and focus our attention, basically predicting where other offences may take place.

“This is an ever changing landscape and involves targeting particular areas and offenders.”

The team have also used social media to crackdown on burglaries.

Di Kirby added: “Social media allows us to expand on the really important work of conducting house to house enquiries and reach a greater number of people than we’d be able to just by door knocking alone.

“It’s also been a great way to keep our local residents updated with the progress of investigations. I hope that’s helped increase their confidence in us, meaning they’re more likely to come forward with information.

“In one particular case, we had two burglaries reported to us and I posted an appeal.

“From this, we received a call about some suspicious callers more than a mile away – outside of the distance we’d usually do house-to-house enquiries. This allowed us to conduct enquiries at that location which revealed some CCTV of a vehicle”

“We traced that via ANPR to another location and got hold of another CCTV image of a man.

“We then issued that image and someone came forward with a name and we’re now actively looking to arrest him.

“That’s one example of how we’ve been able to use social media and combine it with good investigative work to identify and locate a suspect.”

While being pleased with the improvement, DI Kirby admits the job is far from finished: “I’m proud of what we’ve achieved so far and we’re in a much better position than this time last year.

“Bringing information to the community, their reaction to it, and then the good work from the CID team means we’re making progress but there’s still much more to be done.

“I want to thank the public as our work would be nothing if it wasn’t for them responding and giving us that information.

“We’re committed to tackling this issue and will continue to do so.”