Managing Police Investigations into Burglary

Abstract

This paper reports on findings from a Home Office-funded research project on the management of police investigations. While the original study concerned itself with strategies for dealing with burglary and auto crime, this paper focuses specifically on how the police manage burglary offences. It evaluates police detectives' responses to questions asked in interviews about which actions they felt to be of greatest benefit in achieving a number of pre-defined outcomes. The authors sought to evaluate police results in terms of the recovery of stolen property, victim reassurance and the gathering of information for the purposes of criminal intelligence, in addition to the more conventional measures of success — detections and arrests. This paper will be of interest both to academics wishing to know more about the development of investigative practice, as well as to practitioners seeking a more comprehensive means of evaluating performance.