Police have blamed social distancing rules for their failure to catch the criminals responsible for a surge of lockdown break-ins in Dundee.
But Tayside’s top policeman, Chief Superintendent Andrew Todd, would not elaborate on his explanation for officers not tracing the culprit in more than 80% of break-ins between April and June.
He stated in his quarterly report to Dundee councillors, to presented next week:“The detection rate for these crimes has reduced to 18.3%, being directly impacted by some Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing measures.
“These same factors did not present the same challenge when investigating largely empty commercial premises.”
The corresponding figure for the last period was 32.4% – a detection rate fall from roughly a third to less than a fifth.
Police Scotland declined to offer further detail on which social distancing measures had affected police work, or how.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said it proper procedure demands the Chief Superintendent answer questions at Monday’s committee before expanding on the points raised in his report.
The number of break-ins in Dundee has risen by around 62%, an increase from 37 to 60, according to the quarterly update.
Police have warned the criminals broke into homes with the intent to steal in at least 41 of the recorded Dundee cases.
Detection rates – the way officers measure their success in catching perpetrators – have fallen away sharply across the whole region.
Break-ins in Perth in Kinross have fallen from 33 to 20 and in Angus from 22 to 12, both drops of more than 60%.
But detection rates have fallen to only 10% in Perth and Kinross, 15% in Angus and 18% in Dundee.
The figures showed the number of break-ins to commercial properties had fallen slightly from 35 to 32 with a detection rate of almost 47%.
The number of sheds and outbuildings targeted had grown from eight to 15 over the three months.
Mr Todd also warned of a gang targeting care homes in his report.
He said: “During the Covid-19 period, there has been an overall increase in all types of housebreaking from 80 crimes last year to 107 this year. This is an increase of around 33%.
“Interestingly break-ins to commercial premises have reduced during the period from 35 crimes last year to 32 crimes this year. These crimes have a detection rate of 46.9%,” he added.
Carnoustie pensioners tell of ‘shock and anger’ after break-in
A Carnoustie pensioner has spoken of his “shock and anger” after a gang broke into his home while he slept in May this year.
The gang targeted Peter Murphy’s family home in the early hours of the morning, making off with a television, car and computer equipment belonging to their son who was staying with them at the time.
Mr Murphy praised the “quick and effective” police response after they arrested the perpetrators and returned the lost items after only a few weeks.
He said: “You will be aware of the impact such a crime has upon the family, particularly in our case because both my wife and myself are in our eighties and had one of our grandsons staying with us at the time of the break-in.
“ I don’t need to describe to you the degree of shock and anger such an event causes to a family particularly in our case since we have family members abroad and so you can imagine their concern that such an event should happen in what is looked upon as a very safe and quiet town as Carnoustie.”
He said the family were very fortunate in the circumstances to get a very rapid response from police officers.
“They made a thorough investigation of the break-in resulting in the arrest of all of the ‘gang’ involved and also were successful in finding both our car and the TV set during the course of the following two to three weeks.
“As a family we very much applaud the friendly and effective support of the police and the support of the local population who were very quick to offer their support to our extended family both in Scotland and abroad.”
