A NEW dedicated police team is tackling burglaries across the Bradford district.

The District Crime Team was launched in April to combat a rise in burglaries throughout the area.

And West Yorkshire Police say that since the unit's formation, there have been 67 arrests, resulting in 34 charges.

The Liberal Democrat group on Bradford Council recently hit out over the number of burglaries that went unsolved in the 2022-23 financial year.

The figures, from official Home Office statistics, show that a total of 11,418 burglaries in West Yorkshire were closed without a suspect being identified – accounting for 80 per cent of all cases.

Meanwhile, just six per cent of West Yorkshire’s burglaries resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed.

The national figures paint a similar picture. Across England and Wales, nearly 77 per cent of all burglaries went unsolved in that same time period, prompting calls for the Government to bring back “proper community policing”.

The new district team includes a detective inspector, two detective sergeants, and 12 detective constables.

It reviews each burglary on a daily basis, looks at any crime patterns, and maps problem areas. Officers then work with local neighbourhood policing teams and the intelligence unit to target those areas.

By focusing on specific areas, the team aims to identify known suspects and target them with 'disruption visits'.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Atkinson, who heads up the team, says: "We understand the profound impact that being burgled can have on people’s lives.

"We take burglary offences seriously and, in line with national guidance, we attend all home burglaries.

"This dedicated team is using intelligence as well as help from the community to build a picture of burglaries in the area and identifying any patterns across them.

"There has been significant investment in projects to reduce burglary across West Yorkshire and this is the result of that investment in Bradford district.

"We work closely with victims of burglary in the hope of reuniting them with their stolen property.

"We hope over the coming months we’ll start to see a reduction in burglary rates across the area and send a warning out to those who break into people’s homes and businesses that we are watching."

Anyone who has been a victim of burglary or has any information or concerns across the Bradford area is asked to contact the district crime team via 101 or online at westyorkshire.police.uk/contactus.