NEW figures reveal police in Bradford detected only 18 out of 88 burglaries from retail premises.
The figures, for January 1 to November 30 last year in the Bradford South police division, were obtained by the Telegraph & Argus in a Freedom of Information request to the force.
Police recorded 88 burglaries at retail premises, 34 of them in the City Ward. Seventy remained undetected, while in ten cases there had been charges or summons, three offences were taken into consideration and five crime investigations were ongoing.
Police insist they robustly investigate commercial burglaries and strive to bring those responsible to justice.
But Bradford Chamber of Trade secretary Val Summerscales said she would like to see the detection rates improved.
“They are on the low side, which is worrying,” she said. “There may be reasons why the police weren’t able to detect these crimes, but we would like them to try and improve the figures if they can.
“Having said that, I have not had any of our member businesses saying to me they have a problem with high crime rates and nobody doing anything about it.
“The police are probably handling crime as well as they can, though we would all like to see more officers on the beat.”
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Craig of Bradford South Police said: "We recognise that thriving businesses are a key feature of a healthy community and there can be a significant impact upon the business, jobs and the community by this crime.
“Our Neighbourhood teams are a key part of our strategy to reduce business crime. In the City Ward, where there is the greatest concentration of retail premises, there have been 68 fewer victims of commercial burglary between April 2012 and February 2013.
“Our investigations into burglary of business premises remains robust and is coupled with ongoing proactive operations, we continually strive to increase the number of crimes we solve and bring those responsible for these crimes to justice.”
Steve Longbottom, joint manager of City Centre Beat – Bradford’s Business Crime Partnership – said: “The number of recorded crimes, effectively two a week, do not sound astronomical, and one offender can be responsible for a number of burglaries. But the low detection rate would be a concern to me.”
West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman, Jon Christopher, said police needed assistance from the public, and the retailers themselves, who he urged to get high quality CCTV.
He said: “While the detection rates look low, the actual levels of crime are not drastic.”
Last month, the T & A revealed that there had been only 32 convictions from investigations into 684 non-house burglaries in 12 months to September.