Between 2019 and 2022, just 6.7 per cent of the 396,000 reported vehicle crime incidents resulted in a suspect being charged, as revealed by figures released by 39 UK police forces in response to a freedom of information request.
A startlingly low percentage of recorded crimes involving theft from or from a vehicle are solved, and in over 70% of cases, police claim that they were unable to even name a suspect. The astonishingly low percentage of criminal charges may not even accurately represent the scope of the issue because the Greater Manchester, Humberside, Staffordshire, and West Midlands forces refused to answer to Nextbase, a retailer of dash cams, in its FOI request.
Nextbase also commissioned a poll of 2,000 British drivers to learn what kinds of security measures are being used in response to increased instances of car crime, as it is claimed that a lack of video proof is one of the reasons authorities can’t catch the criminals in question.
51 per cent of respondents say they rely on a car alarm, while 25 per cent say they always park their car where they can see it. In order to prevent remote theft, 23% of people keep their key fob away from windows and doors when they are at home, and 17% of drivers say they have a dash cam. Six percent of motorists claim they don’t take any special precautions to keep their vehicles secure.
In order to advertise its new range of products that function like video doorbells, recording footage of anyone breaking into or tampering with your car and promptly backing it up online, Nextbase is emphasising the absence of effective policing around car theft and related crime.
“This is the first time this kind of technology has made it to dash cams, allowing anybody to protect their vehicle with the kind of security homes have recently gained,” says Nextbase spokesman Bryn Brooker. “Eventually this kind of technology will make stealing a car unviable. For now, it will help police track down more of these criminals and stop these thefts from happening in the first place.”
