THE police officers responsible for cutting burglary rates in Blackburn have been recognised after reaching the final three in the Public Servants of the Year Awards 2004.
Blackburn Burglary Team, nominated for the Uniformed Services award, managed to significantly cut burglary and repeat burglary in the town thanks to a new approach, which could be copied throughout the North West.
The team targets offenders and crime hotspots, for example, by visiting known offenders and by using rigorous bail and curfew demands and talks to help them break their pattern.
Officers also work with the victims of crime, revisiting 75 per cent of all homes that suffer burglaries, handing out advice packs and ensuring that victims have a police contact point.
In Blackburn there were 1,239 reported burglaries of homes in 2001/02. A year later this had been reduced to 906.
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