As 2017 has reached its conclusion and a new year has begun, it’s time to look back over what the last year has meant for our residential and commercial security, from crime statistics to policing cuts, and begin to look to the future in terms of what action we as individuals can take to protect ourselves, our businesses and our families.
Crime Rates
Firstly, let’s take a look at how crime itself has changed throughout 2017. Unfortunately, it’s not the prettiest of pictures. Statistics have shown an 11% rise in recorded crime in England and Wales from 2016 to 2017, with rates rising from 60 offences per 1000 people to 67 per 1000 people. This will, naturally, be subjecting the police force to increasing pressure.
Police Funding
Luckily, despite increasing crime, the government vowed in 2015 that it would make no further police cuts and protected the overall amount of money it was giving to police nationwide. Sorted, right? … Wrong.
Unfortunately, as many critics have pointed out, the way money is allocated, along with rising crime and the increasing costs that forces face mean that, in real terms, many have still seen budget cuts.
In August 2017, the Deputy Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, Craig Mackey, confessed that the police would increasing need to prioritise which crimes were responded to in person. The Metropolitan Police later acknowledged that certain less serious crimes were unlikely to be followed up, in particular if there was little chance of catching the offender.
Following this, all attention became focused on the Autumn Budget and many hoped that Hammond would announce an increase in police funding. This, regrettably, was not the case and shortly after the Major of London, Sadiq Khan, said that it was officially and subsequently inevitable that police numbers would continue fall, with Metropolitan Police officers possibly reaching as low a number as 27,500 by 2021.
“We are left with no choice but to scrap London’s strategic target for 32,000 police officers that has been in place since 2012,” Khan went on to say.
Looking to the Future
2017 has left the situation with regards to our residential and commercial security looking like it’s all doom and gloom. However, that needed necessarily be the case. With crime on a steady rise and police numbers forecast to keep falling, it is time for the public to take responsibility.
As aforementioned, the Metropolitan Police have stated that they will soon be forced to stop following up crimes that are deemed “less serious”, or crimes where there is little chance of catching the culprit. Unfortunately, these “less serious” crimes are likely to include thefts and break-ins. This is due to the fact that, with many break-ins nowadays, there is little chance of catching the criminal. The average burglar is in and out within 3-5 minutes, which means that they often escape before anyone has chance to respond to an alarm and reach the scene of the crime. Furthermore, the use of hoodies and balaclavas is rendering CCTV increasingly futile as a source of evidence for catching the criminals after the event of the crime.
This means that, were your home or business to be broken into, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the police would follow up the crime. This is, of course, very frustrating and will leave many wondering what the solution could be.
Residential and Commercial Security Systems to Combat the Problem
All hope is not lost. With a SmokeCloak security fog system, a cloud of impenetrable fog is deployed as soon as an intruder enters the premises, rendering them temporarily blind and forcing them to flee empty-handed. On top of this, the revolutionary SmokeCloak DNA means that the intruders get DNA marked during the fog’s deployment, linking them directly to the scene of the crime with unique DNA signatures. This, in a time when the police are not following up crimes with little chance of a prosecution, drastically increases the chance that the intruder will be caught and that justice will be served.
If you would like to take control of your residential or commercial security and wish to find out about getting a SmokeCloak system installed in your home or business, please do not hesitate to contact SmokeCloak on 01604 839000. Alternatively, you can fill out our contact form and we will get back to you.