Tayside’s top police officer has declared war against housebreakers in Angus.
Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson said it was an offence that he was “absolutely intolerant” towards.
Mr Anderson said it was “vitally important” that people in the county feel safe in their homes.
“From a personal perspective, although housebreaking may not sit as one of the five national priorities, it is an offence type that I am absolutely intolerant of,” he said.
“You should be able to live in your house with your belongings without someone taking them.
“It’s an area I have no time for whatsoever.”
Mr Anderson said it takes “a certain sort of person” to break into someone’s house and take their property.
But he warned thieves that police would “chase them across the crime tide” and they will be brought to justice.
Mr Anderson was delivering the quarterly local policing report for April to June to Angus Council’s scrutiny and audit councillors.
Housebreaking went up during the period from 45 to 51 but the overall detection rate increased from 33% to 43% which he described as “absolutely first class”.
He said there is “considerable pro-active work conducted in this area of policing”.
Mr Anderson said thieves were now “moving into less risky areas” where they “can make their money” such as sheds and outbuildings.
“Just because they are now breaking into sheds doesn’t mean they wont be investigated,” he said.
There has been an overall decrease in violent crime in Angus although the majority is “still occurring indoors”.
There was a 25% decrease in serious assaults from 20 incidents to 15.
The overall total number for serious violent crime also reduced by around 9.4%.
There was also been a 7.3% decrease in petty assaults.
Mr Anderson said: “Again this is encouraging but the overall numbers remain high and ahead of the five year average.
“The majority of petty assaults are still occurring indoors with recent analysis showing alcohol to be a considerable contributory factor.
“Domestic abuse accounts for a large proportion of the overall numbers with reported incidents more than doubled in the last five years.
“However this period shows a reduction of 8.3% compared to the previous period.”
The overall number of robberies remains low with a 16.6% increase in the detection rate.
Despite a variety of national and international incidents the number of hate crimes reported in Angus continues to reduce.
For the previous period 24 crimes were reported compared to 17 crimes this year.
