POLICE data has revealed the number of mobile phones stolen in a five-year period.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to West Yorkshire Police revealed the number of phone thefts in the area covered by the Bradford City Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) from the start of 2018 to the end of 2022.

The NPT covers the main Bradford city centre area. 

According to the FOI, there were 165 mobile phones stolen in the Bradford City NPT area last year – of which 157 incidents were recorded as crimes.

This number was only ever so slightly down from 2021, when 166 phones were stolen in the NPT area, with 163 of those incidents recorded as crimes.

2020 saw 206 phones stolen in the NPT area, and 156 of those incidents were recorded as crimes.

The figures were also broken down into months, and September 2020 saw 62 phones stolen – a rate of just over two a day – which was the second-highest monthly figure in the four-year period, second only to March 2018, where 108 phones were stolen in the Bradford City Centre NPT area in that month alone.

The 2019 figure stood at 370 phones stolen (328 crimes) while 2018 had the highest yearly total, with 475 (343 crimes).

The FOI also asked West Yorkshire Police for data on the areas covered by the Leeds and Wakefield city centre NPTs.

It found that, in 2022, a whopping 1,025 mobile phones were stolen in Leeds city centre, while 116 phones were stolen in Wakefield city centre.

West Yorkshire Police said that what is classed as a crime, in this case, is defined by an incident where one or more mobile phones were stolen, and incidents which were not subsequently cancelled (i.e., an incident originally recorded as a crime, but later deemed not to be).

The crimes may also involve incidents where other items, as well as a phone, were also stolen.

The force said the figures may be subject to further investigation, reclassification and cancelling, however, and will therefore change over time.

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