Police in Leicester have been ignoring burglaries at odd-number houses

Leicestershire Police have been trialling a controversial new scheme which could be rolled out across the country.

They’ve been ignoring burglaries at odd-numbered houses, and found it makes no difference to the overall crime rate.

This scheme acts as a money-saving technique but also works to make deployment of forensic officers more efficient.

It comes just weeks after comments by Sara Thornton, the head of the National Police Chiefs Council, who said the public should no longer expect police officers to turn up at their door if they are burgled.

I live at an odd-numbered house, should I be worried?

The director of the police foundation thinktank, Gavin Hales, told The Times: “The notion of denying 50 per cent of victims a basic service, based on something as arbitrary as their house number, looks ethically dubious at best.”

But Leicestershire police have said there was : “No noticeable impact on victim satisfaction, and nor did it affect the overall ratio of scenes visited and suspects identified.”

This scheme can may also be rolled out to Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire depending on the results from Leicestershire.

The scheme is a result of year on year cuts on policing leaving police forces to test out new methods.

Deputy Chief Constable Roger Bannister said: “The public would expect us to make the very best possible use of our time and limited resources to have the biggest impact on public safety and the prevention and detection of crime.

Probably on their way to an even numbered house

Police analysis had shown that forensic science officers were deployed to 1,172 attempted burglaries however only a few scenes were found to contain some scientific evidence and only 33 suspects were identified as a result of these visits.