Executive summary

	The focus of our audit
	Household burglary is an invasive crime that concerns many citizens.
	In the mid 1990s, New South Wales experienced a rise in most major categories of recorded crime. In particular, between 1995 and 1997, household burglary rose 30 per cent. These increases were greater in NSW than in other States and generated considerable public concern.
	In 1998, the NSW Police Force introduced new crime fighting strategies and more local accountability for results. Commanders were encouraged to analyse crime data and trends and target resources to high risk times and locations. Commanders were also encouraged to focus on repeat offenders and repeat victims wherever possible.
	In the two years following the introduction of these new strategies, household burglaries fell by ten per cent along with a rise in the prison population by 13 per cent.
	In 2003, the NSW Police Force implemented the Fundamental Response to Crime (FRC) which outlined a set of new strategies to be used by local area commands for dealing specifically with break and enters.
	The downward trend in household burglaries continued. In the last five years, household burglaries decreased by over 30 per cent. Recorded rates of burglary are now lower than they were 10 years ago.
	Despite these changes, break and enter is still the fourth most common crime affecting citizens in NSW, and citizens perceive that break and enter continues to be a problem in their local area.
	For these reasons, reducing household burglary remains a high priority for the Government.
	In this audit, we wanted to find out how well the NSW Police Force: § responds to reports of household burglary § investigates household burglaries § reduces household burglaries.
	When a victim reports to police that their home has been burgled, police may attend and, if physical evidence is available such as fingerprints, tools or clothing, may send a forensic officer to collect evidence from the crime scene.
	We recognise that break and enter crimes are difficult to solve, unless there is a known suspect, a witness, or forensic evidence. In order to get a better understanding of how police deal with household burglary, we visited four local area commands: Redfern, Blacktown, Newcastle and Wagga Wagga, to observe their approach and to see what works.
	Audit opinion
	The NSW Police Force has done well to maintain a downward trend in household burglaries in NSW since 2001. Police recognise the impact this crime has on the community’s perception of security and safety. Success has come from a continued focus on prevention and enforcement.
	However, there are other factors which have influenced this result. These include a rise in the rate and length of imprisonment, the heroin drought in 2001, increases in the number of heroin users entering treatment, low levels of unemployment, and increases in the average weekly earnings of young males.
	Amongst these factors, it is difficult to judge the extent of the impact police have had on this result. Nevertheless, the police’s view is that the results should have been better.
	Last year, break and enters dropped by around 2,500. However, each command had set a target that would have resulted in an overall decrease of around 8,000 break and enters.
	Police have strategies in place to reduce household burglary through targeting locations and more recently, targeting prolific offenders. However, moving forward, we identified opportunities for police to improve their approach to both prevention and detection.
	The fact remains that crime rates vary across NSW. Although 60 per cent of all household burglaries occur in Sydney, the risk of being a victim of a household burglary is greater in disadvantaged communities, whether these are located in metropolitan or rural areas. There is also a greater risk of burglary for those previously burgled.
	Yet the police response to household burglary is determined by local protocols and the availability of resources, not the victims’ location.
	Today, police rely heavily on forensic evidence to solve these crimes. Yet there is no guarantee that even where evidence is available at the scene, a forensic officer will be available to collect it, or that the response is timely. This is necessary to prevent degradation or contamination of the evidence and minimise inconvenience to the victim.
	Intelligence also plays a major role in helping prevent or solve these crimes. Yet police do not record specific data on household burglaries separately from commercial break and enters, although offenders may have different modus operandi and properties exhibit different risks.
	In 2005-06, over 90 per cent of break and enters remained unsolved. We recognise that solving these crimes is a difficult task. We consider prevention strategies focussed on high risk neighbourhoods and high risk offenders may have the greatest impact on crime rates in the long term.
	Summary of recommendations
	We recommend that the NSW Police Force in regard to household burglaries:
	§ collects and analyses data on these crimes separately from commercial break and enters § improves investigation and detection capability § better targets prevention strategies and monitors results.
	Detailed recommendations follow.
	Key audit findings
Chapter 1 Is household burglary a problem?	In 2005-06, there were over 80,000 incidents of break and enter. Sixty per cent, or over 49,000 incidents, involved residential properties. Currently, household burglary represents around 11 per cent of all recorded crimes and is the fourth most common crime affecting citizens, the most common being malicious damage.
	The NSW Police Force has developed responses to burglary that take into account that: § being a victim of a burglary means the person is at greater risk of being burgled again § a small percentage of offenders commit a large percentage of these crimes.
	Household burglary is still a problem in NSW and remains a high priority for police. Citizen surveys show improvement in the level of satisfaction and confidence in the NSW Police Force, but people still perceive break and enter as a problem in their local area.
	More recently, the NSW State Plan recognised the impact of household burglary on the community. The plan sets a target of a 15 per cent reduction in property crime against households, including household burglary, by 2016.
Chapter 2 How well do police respond to household burglaries?	Police use victims’ reports as the key means for deciding whether or not to attend a crime scene. However, we could not determine how many household burglaries were attended by general duties officers. Although this information is recorded in the Computerised Operational Policing System (COPS), it is very difficult to collate these data and make an assessment.
	Victims’ reports are also essential for deciding whether or not there is evidence that should be collected. These reports are assessed by forensic officers with this purpose in mind. On average, forensic officers attended three out of five burglaries in 2005-06.
	Commands set their own targets for attendance, yet we would expect all scenes assessed as having collectable evidence to be attended. And since there are no data on what scenes have been assessed as having collectable evidence, we can not judge if forensic officers attended all the crime scenes that they needed to. Overall, the rate of attendance varied significantly across commands.
	There are also no response time standards for forensic officers, although delays in responding may lead to contamination of the crime scene, or degradation of evidence.
	Canvassing is when general duties officers visit the scene and talk to neighbours about the crime. It is an important means of gathering intelligence or witness reports. It is also an opportunity to advise neighbours on what has happened and how they may protect their property. Although this activity may be recorded in COPS, it is very difficult to review these records to judge how often this occurs.
	Police have established systems to capture victims’ reports in a consistent way. However, police do not collect data specific to household burglaries (as distinct from commercial break and enters), even though the offenders may have very different modus operandi, and properties exhibit different risks.
	Police check whether victims’ reports are correct and complete by sampling COPS records. Although sampling is an appropriate technique, we found that sample sizes used by commands for this exercise varied from 20 per cent to 100 per cent of available records.
	We recommend that the NSW Police Force: § reviews what information on household burglary should be collected, and records whether or not the property has been burgled before (page 18) § reviews intelligence on household burglaries separately from commercial break and enters (page 18) § introduces quality assurance standards for checking victims’ reports in terms of the sample size used in reviews (page 18) § as part of future system upgrades, records victims’ reports in a way that can be collated (page 18) § clarifies when canvassing should occur, who should canvass and how it should be recorded (page 20).
	§ with the victim’s consent, attends all crime scenes where collectable forensic evidence is reported to exist (page 22) § reviews response times for the collection of forensic evidence and sets time standards for collection in 2008-09 (page 22)
Chapter 3 How well do police investigate household burglaries?	Break and enter crimes are difficult to solve, unless there is a known suspect, a witness, or forensic evidence. Research indicates that up to a third of cases may be resolved through other arrests, such as a person being charged with speeding and the police finding stolen goods in the car. The FRC provides a framework for investigating break and enters using evidence and intelligence. These investigations can often take some time, particularly where forensic evidence requires analysis, although there are no data on the impact delays in forensic analysis have on investigation outcomes.
	The FRC indicates that different risks warrant different investigative approaches, such as the creation of a specialist team to investigate these crimes. Commands used different approaches to assess these risks. As a result, even where the number and severity of household burglaries were similar, we observed that commands chose different responses.
	The legal action rate provides police with a measure of the success of investigations. None of the commands we visited met their target for the legal action rate last year. Across the State, police achieved a 6.4 per cent legal action rate, meaning that over 90 per cent of break and enters remains unsolved. NSW does not rank well compared to other jurisdictions in clearing break and enter cases.
	We recommend that the NSW Police Force: § examines the time taken for forensic analysis and determines the impact on investigations (page 25) § develops guidelines to help commands judge whether a specialist break and enter team is needed based on risk (page 27) § reviews the legal action rate and identifies factors affecting results (page 29).
Chapter 4 How successful are police in reducing household burglaries?	Policing solutions to reduce household burglaries include specific crime prevention, detection and enforcement strategies. Crime prevention strategies are designed to: § improve precinct and neighbourhood safety § improve victim safety, or § identify and target persons of interest.
	The NSW Police Force uses a variety of strategies to prevent household burglaries and improve neighbourhood safety. However, there are no data on the impact of these programs on the actual number of burglaries.
	The NSW Police Force offers victims of household burglaries an information pack on how to prevent crimes and upgrade household security. Although this is useful, we found that the packs distributed by the four commands we visited were different and varied in quality.
	Police recognise the risk that victims face of them becoming a repeat victim of a break and enter. Although police offer security assessments to all victims who have been burgled twice, they do not offer the same level of service to possibly prevent victims becoming repeat victims in the first place, particularly in high risk neighbourhoods.
	The State Plan sets a target of a 15 per cent reduction in property crimes against the households over the next ten years. Although each of the commands sets a target for reducing all break and enters, the commands do not set a target for reducing household burglaries. They should do this in order to focus resources on tackling this problem and contributing to the State Plan outcome.
	We recommend that the NSW Police Force: § establishes minimum standards for developing intelligence on household burglaries (page 33) § provides a standard information pack on household security to victims (page 35) § offers security assessments to all victims of a household burglary living in high risk neighbourhoods, and establishes a timeframe for completing these assessments (page 35) § monitors and reports on repeat victims as a measure of success of crime prevention strategies (page 35) § examines the appropriateness of victim-based crime prevention strategies for high risk neighbourhoods (page 35) § reviews the impact of prevention programs on household burglaries in high risk neighbourhoods (page 33) § establishes targets for household burglaries that will contribute to the outcomes expected in the State Plan (page 37).
	Response from the NSW Police Force
	Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the Performance audit Report: Dealing with Household Burglaries, dated 28 May 2007.
	As acknowledged in your report, reducing household burglary continues to be a priority for the NSW Police Force and the Government. Notwithstanding a thirty percent reduction in household burglaries over the last five years, we remain committed to reducing the incidence of this offence even further.
	Through the NSW State Plan, NSW Police Force has proposed a number of initiatives to reduce household crime, including burglary, over the next ten years. The initiatives, recently endorsed by the Premier and Minister for Police, include better coordination of resources dedicated to crime prevention. There are opportunities to improve planning, coordination, and evaluation of crime prevention activities, and improve the targeting of crime hotspots and management of repeat offenders. Importantly, the initiatives will also focus on building effective cross agency partnerships, facilitating inter agency information exchange, streamlining procedures and legislation, and enhancing our forensic capability.
	The NSW Government has allocated additional funds to reduce the backlog of forensic DNA samples on hand. This has seen NSW Police provide additional staff at the Department of Analytical Laboratory at Lidcombe; contracting analysis of minor crime scene samples to a private company; and investing in new equipment for DNA analysis and the commissioning of the new police laboratory at Pemulwuy. Each of these strategies has contributed to improvement in forensic processes and, as a result contributed to our response to crimes including domestic burglary.
	As an organisation, we are cognisant of the financial loss and personal distress that victims may suffer as a consequence of having their home broken into. While rates of household burglary vary across NSW, the crime fighting strategies NSW Police Force has pursued, including local accountability for results, detailed analysis of crime data and trends, targeting resources to high-risk times and locations and a focus on repeat offenders and repeat victims, has allowed us to identify problem areas.
	I am pleased by initiatives described in the four local area commands involved in the audit, namely Redfern, Blacktown, Newcastle and Wagga Wagga, and believe that these commands are representative of the effort being made across NSW. I firmly believe the community of NSW have confidence in their police force and equally that we have the skills resources and technology to respond effectively to crimes such as domestic burglary. That said, the NSW Police Force continually seeks to enhance its performance and service to the community, and we therefore welcome the Audit Office recommendations for improvements in the area of household burglary. We will carefully consider all of the recommendations contained within this report and where appropriate integrate them into the various initiatives proposed to achieve NSW State Plan priorities.
	Finally, I understand that a high level of co-operation was achieved between NSW Police Force and the Audit Office during the conduct of this audit. This is very pleasing and I thank all parties involved in the process for their professionalism and efforts. (signed) K E Moroney AO APM Commissioner of Police Dated: 6 June  2007.