Victims housebreaking in Dundee have less than a one-in-five chance of having the culprit brought to justice, shocking figures reveal.
Detection rates for attempted and actual housebreaking in Dundee are just 18.1% meaning police fail to catch more than 80% of offenders.
That figure sits far below the pre-Police Scotland five-year average, in which 27.5% of culprits were brought to justice.
The statistics were revealed by Chief Superintendent Hamish Macpherson as part of Tayside Division’s monthly review by Dundee City Council.
In a separate police report, which will be presented to the council’s policy and resources committee on Monday, Chief Inspector Conrad Trickett said housebreaking detection was an area of “focus” for the future.
He said: “Unfortunately our detection rate (for housebreaking) has reduced over the year from previous years.
“This is due to low numbers of crimes limiting detection opportunities, sporadic distribution across Dundee with no hot spots and a high percentage of prolific offenders in prison.
“This is an area for us to focus on during the coming year.”
The Courier contacted Police Scotland, Tayside Division, for further comment, but they declined to elaborate.
Other problem areas for the 11-month old Tayside Division include shoplifting, which has a detection rate of 81%, more than 5% lower than the pre-Police Scotland five-year average, and vandalism, with just over a quarter of those incidents solved.
The figures come from the same report that indicate a rise in domestic violence, with a spike on Valentine’s Day.
However, there are also a number of positives included in the report, which has seen an overall reduction in a wide-range of offences.
Violent crime has been reduced by 31.5%, serious assaults have dropped by 24.7% and robbery has been reduced by 53.2%.
A blitz on road safety has also seen a huge rise in the number of people being caught not wearing seatbelts or using their mobile phones while driving.
“Road policing activity features as a priority in both Dundee policing areas and officers carry out activity (in relation to this) on a daily basis, including road check points and mobile patrols,” they said.
They also said they would continue their focus on tackling violent crime across Dundee, much of which was “alcohol-fuelled”.
“Violence continues to be an issue across Dundee North and South Policing area. (In the south) the primary issue relate to the night-time economy and alcohol-fuelled disorder and violence.
“In Dundee North, much of the violence is domestic violence, often fuelled by alcohol as well.”