Police taking over five hours to respond to burglary calls in Avon and Somerset

Police in Avon and Somerset are taking an average of 5 hours and 21 minutes to respond to burglary calls, damning new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

This is a dramatic 68% increase on response times compared to figures from 2021/22, where it took an average 3 hours and 10 minutes to respond to burglaries.

Across England, police are taking an average of 9 hours and 8 minutes to show up at the scene when a burglary was reported. This is a 25% increase when compared to the previous year and an 87% increase on burglary response times in 2020/21.

Frome and East Somerset’s Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative Government for these figures, arguing that years of ineffective resourcing have left local police forces overstretched, under-resourced and unable to effectively respond to local crime.

This includes taking more than 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015.

The party is calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and able to focus on responding to neighbourhood crime like burglaries.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Frome and East Somerset, Anna Sabine said: 

“People in Frome and East Somerset deserve to feel safe in their own homes. The fact that traumatised burglary victims are being left waiting for hours, wondering if the police will even arrive, is unacceptable. It is unforgivable that crucial evidence may be lost in the process too.

“I will continue to call for proper community policing to be restored, so people in our area can be confident that if they do fall victim to crime, the police will turn up and investigate properly”.