Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet has welcomed the news from Barnet Police that there has been a 27% drop in residential burglary offences since April, compared to the same period last year.
In April Police re-instigated Operation Formidable which proved highly successful in cutting crime last year and involves additional officers and a strong focus on tackling burglary.
Over an 8 week period 123 arrests were made of which 32 were for burglary. This has led to a dramatic drop in burglary offences. During a 24 hour period last Saturday, there were no burglaries anywhere in the borough, the first time this has happened for many years.
The Police have confirmed that over the whole weekend only 5 residential burglaries took place, which was a significant improvement.They have pledged to maintain and improve upon this.
Theresa Villiers said: "Burglary causes huge distress to its victims so I warmly welcome these encouraging figures indicating real progress in combating this crime."
"I gather that support from the community, particularly Neighbourhood Watch groups, has played an important part in police success against burglars."
"I am very pleased to hear that burglary is coming down in our borough. It is absolutely right that the police take this crime very seriously and do all they can to ensure that burglars do not go unpunished. These figures are particularly impressive when you take into account the fact that they are an improvement on last year’s results, which had already been pushed down by the first phase of Operation Formidable.”
“It was clearly a good move to run Operation Formidable again and I hope that the 123 arrests that resulted will act as a deterrent to potential wrongdoers.”