New West Midlands police chief confirms burglary is a priority for the force
The new West Midlands Police Chief Constable has told ITV News that burglary is a "local priority", despite only responding to 60% of burglary calls.
In a wide-ranging interview, this is one of the topics that ITV News Central Presenter Sameena Ali-Khan spoke about earlier, as Craig Guildford began his new role today.
He said investigating "100% of crimes, like burglaries, within a reasonable amount of time" is important to the service.
Mr Guildford said: "We already go to 60% of burglary dwelling reports anyway. So in the future we will make sure that we're going to all of those reports of burglary in a good time."
There's a big difference, isn't there though, between 60% and 100%?
"We have to prioritise the services that we have and where it's necessary to deploy a police officer we will be doing that."
"Burglary is a local priority and will continue to be a priority. Our response to burglary will improve in the coming months and years."
He added he aims for the presence of an attending police officer and response to telephone calls to be better in the future.
Mr Guildford said there is an issue with the demand of crimes come in and they need to prioritising their response to people who are in immediate need.
He added that the force will aim to respond to all burglaries within a "reasonable space of time", which he stated as being "a few hours".
One of the chief constable's priorities is "local neighbourhood policing" in response to burglary.
Another concern of the force is "massive underreporting of hate crime" and the rise in violence against women and girls has been alarming.
Mr Guildford said the West Midlands force is part of a national approach to tackle violence against women and girls, including new and different methods to contact the police at different times of the day and continued invest in support services.
There are more challenges expected by the force with "regards to some of the tightening fiscal situation that we can see on the horizon" and they aim to tackle this by listening, gathering evidence and prioritising safeguarding the vulnerable.
What about domestic violence, have you seen a rise in this?
The Chief Constable said, in his experience, there is increase in disorder related to alcohol around the football season and their aim is to implement more prevention.
We know the demands on the service are growing, what are you prioritising in terms of crime?
Organised criminality
Knife crime
Acquisitive crime
Aspects of county lines
Telephone response and deployment time
WMP has taken on lots of young recruits, they are in training, are you satisfied they are the right people for the job?
Mr Guildford said there is an increased amount of specialisation in recent years the force and people entering the service earlier in their career.
He said: "But not everyone meets the grade. The standard is the standard. And on occasions there are some people that we have to let go [after training] because they haven't met that standard."