A POLICE scheme to reduce rising burglary figures which has seen criminals target homes with high-value cars will be discussed at a crime meeting on Monday.
The Chronicle revealed last month that police - who admitted there had been a sharp increase in so-called ‘two-in-one’ break-ins - were focusing their efforts on areas including Athersley, Darton, Mapplewell, Penistone, Royston and Staincross due to their close proximity with the West Yorkshire border and criminals taking advantage of confusion over force lines.
According to Sgt Dave Baines, Barnsley-registered vehicles were found in places such as Wakefield, Pontefract and Bradford following burglaries carried out locally.
Serious acquisitive crime, as the police call it, has been adopted as a priority along the West Yorkshire corridor and on-foot PCSOs have been tasked with delivering crime prevention advice to residents, while both marked and unmarked patrol cars were deployed to skate the border.
Latest figures for the combined villages, which go from September 2018 to March 2019, show a spike in burglaries in November, December and January with an average of six per month but a steady decrease in the final two months, resulting in just three reports in March.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Murphy added: “The criminals have targeted houses with high-end or high-performance cars outside.
“A lot of the vehicles that are stolen are sold on or used for parts but we do recover a high amount of the stolen cars.
“Burglary is one of the crimes that has the biggest impact on victims, it’s intrusive and scary, but we have dedicated people and patrols dedicated to two-in-one burglaries and we are trying to reduce the chances of this happening in the future.
“South Yorkshire Police take this problem very seriously. At this moment we have a number of additional resources that are patrolling the affected areas.
“We have a dedicated team of officers who are on duty during the day and at night and detectives investigating the offences that have happened to help make arrests.
“We will do absolutely everything they can to stop these crimes from happening and the public can help by following basic crime prevention strategies such as not leaving valuables on show and having a secure place to store keys.
“I want to reassure the people of Barnsley that catching burglars is our passion and we are doing absolutely everything we can to do this.”
n The police crime meeting is at Mansfield Road TARA, Athersley North, on Tuesday from 5pm.
