Has COVID Lockdowns reduced burglaries in Bristol and Bath
Having all endured about 12 months to date of working from home and enforced lockdown measures to ensure the transmission of Covid was kept to a minimum we take a look at how it has affected the security of our homes.
We all know that if your property is occupied then the risk of a burglary is reduced but it is not to say that there is no risk as thefts from houses have always still happened in the middle of the night when the occupants are sleeping. Burglars may be after your vehicle with a quick letter box raid for your car keys or a quick snatch and grab of high value computer equipment.
Overall Crime during first Lock-Down
The ONS performed a study – “Coronavirus and crime in England and Wales: August 2020” where it reviewed crime before the first lockdown and during the first lockdown.
Reductions were seen across many types of crime; in particular, theft offences which fell in April and May 2020 to almost half the level recorded in April and May 2019.
So it is clear that in the first lockdown, that having people at home caused a big reduction in burglaries.
Overal Crime during Second Lock-Down
We then started to look at the specifics of Bristol crime and Bath crime rates over a full 12 month period of 2020 / 2021.
Bath Outer City Crime
Rather than look at Bath city centre, we deliberately looked at the residential areas and covered Bath City outer regions rather than commercial districts.
This first graph shows the number of burglaries in the outer regions of Bath City for the period Feb 2020 until Feb 2021 and it clearly shows the decrease in burglaries in March April May 2020 but then the number has increased again back to pre Covid levels.
Burglaries in Bath from Feb 2020 to Feb 2021
Source : https://www.ukcrimestats.com/Neighbourhood/7614
Bristol Outer City Crime
Bristol being a little larger than Bath we focused on the northern districts and BS6 post codes. Again this was to focus on residential areas rather than commercial BS1 districts.
The next graph shows the number of burglaries in the Bristol BS6 post codes for the period Feb 2020 until Feb 2021. A similar trend as seen in Bath with a reduction in the first part of the year gradually increasing to the end of 2020 and continuing into 2021 during the second lockdown phase.
Burglaries in Bristol BS6 from Feb 2020 to Feb 2021
Source : https://www.ukcrimestats.com/Postcode_Districts/BS6/
What does it all mean to Bristol and Bath residents?
The bright side is that for the year 2020 even with higher value equipment been held in homes and perhaps the criminal fraternity becoming more desperate for money that the number of burglaries were down and we are sure that this was to do with higher occupancy of properties acting as a major deterrent.
The down side is that the number of burglaries seems to have crept back up and we should always be on the look out and look to provide extra deterrents to our properties.
One of the best proven ways to help reduce crime to your property is to introduce an alarm system or CCTV. Found out more from I-SPY CCTV Bath on how we can help.
