Police Perspective: Doncaster burglary response yielding positive results

Burglary is one of our district priorities here in Doncaster. We have recently invested resources into this area and now, through Op Castle, have a dedicated, detective-led team to respond to all burglaries of people’s homes.

Op Castle has been in place for four months and is already showing significant results, with a 10 per cent reduction in burglary, and a small increase in the detection rate which we are confident will increase further as people move through the criminal justice system. We have arrested 23 people on suspicion of burglary, nine of whom have been remanded in custody. These results do not yet show in national data which look year on year but will be felt by our communities.

Prolific burglar Lee Barnes was one of the first offenders identified and arrested by officers as part of Op Castle. On 9 June, he was jailed for over eight years at Sheffield Crown Court. Barnes carried out his spate of offending in February, and on one occasion threatened his victim with a knife when he was caught in an upstairs bedroom. The 45-year-old, of Washington Road, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, five counts of residential burglary and four counts of attempted burglary. He also admitted robbery, seven counts of fraud, assault, possession of an offensive weapon and failing to provide a drugs test.

Op Castle brings together a dedicated team of officers who have in-depth knowledge of local up to date intelligence, direct links into our offender management programme so we know which burglars are back on our streets, an understanding of offending patterns and a detailed knowledge of the forensic requirements to convict someone of a burglary offence. This knowledge has led to burglaries being linked together and viewed as a series and importantly linking that series to an offender so they are dealt with the for full extent of their offending rather than isolated offences.

We also use the knowledge they gather around the presence and patterns of burglars to inform our patrol plans with a view to prevent burglaries from occurring.