Exclusive: Nearly all burglaries in Lenton are going unsolved by police

Lenton is a hotbed for unsolved sexual assault, violence, and burglary, an investigation by The Nottingham Tab can reveal.

Figures show that 85 per per cent of burglaries in the area between September 2017 and 2018 were unsolved by police.

Derby Road, the main way home from uni for most students, saw 16 reports of violent and sexual crimes, whilst Kimbolton Avenue saw 11 burglaries. In total, over half of the 2104 crimes reported in Lenton went unsolved, with students describing the situation as "really scary".

Every month, Buy/Sell, which is supposed to be a platform for students to buy and sell nightclub tickets, accumulates tons of students posting on the page detailing their scary encounters with burglars, knife crime, and sex pests.

Screenshot taken from Buy/Sell Tickets (Notts uni) – UniSalad

Worryingly, police data shows that most of the incidences of the type described above go unresolved, with suspects remaining unknown to the police.

According to the Nottinghamshire police database, between September 2017 to September 2018, there were over 500 reported incidences of violence and sexual offences, and burglary within a 1.1 square mile area containing Lenton – most of which remained unresolved after the official investigation.

Data was collected from the area highlighted above

On Kimbolton Avenue, dubbed "the most robbed street in Britain" by students and locals alike, there were 11 reported burglaries between September 2017 and 2018. More shockingly, however, is the fact that of the 11 burglaries reported the police were unable to identify a suspect in 10 of the cases.

The most worrying finding for students is that Kimbolton Avenue is not an outlier. Of the counts of reported burglary in the 1.1-mile squared area, 79 per cent resulted in the police being unable to identify a suspect.

In the case of violence and sexual offences, the situation is hardly any better. On Derby Road, the main route that students take to get home from university everyday, there were 16 reports of violence and sexual offences. Moreover, out of the 284 incidences of violence and sexual offence, 137 resulted in the police being unable to prosecute suspects, and in 57 cases no suspect was identified in the first place.

Heat map representing count of the reports of violence/sexual offences in Lenton. The redder areas indicate a higher count.

Heat map representing count of reports of burglary in Lenton. The redder areas indicate a higher count.

Pointing towards the severity of the issue, a few University of Nottingham students have felt the need to respond to the issue by creating an altruistic Facebook group called "Nottingham Safe-Space", where girls can report and warn of any terrifying, or perhaps freaky experiences they have in Nottingham and plan their walks home with others, making sure they can travel home safely.

Safia, an engineering student living in Lenton, reflected on the masses of unresolved incidences, describing the act of walking home from town after a night out as “really scary”. Expressing a widespread feeling among students, she also said: “I hate walking home alone through Lenton in the night”.

Other students have responded to the issue with outrage to the police. “You only ever see a few community police officers walking around Lenton who don’t do a lot… they also waste their time on house parties” recalled one politics student – suggesting that perhaps the whole ordeal is being caused by lacklustre police investigations into burglary and other "minor crimes".

Nationwide investigations alternatively suggest that instead of being an issue with Nottingham’s policing, the picture here belongs to a graver issue in which two thirds of burglary cases in the UK are closed before any investigation takes place.

The Nottingham Tab has contacted Nottinghamshire Police for comment.