“Safer homes”: An evaluation of a reorganization to deal with domestic Burglary within a UK police force

Abstract

This paper describes an evaluation of an initiative to improve performance regarding domestic burglary in a police force in the North of England. The force was not performing well in respect of domestic burglary detections and was required to make considerable changes in order to improve levels of performance. The force undertook substantial organizational restructuring to implement the scheme. The evaluation focussed on the process, outcomes and stakeholder views of the initiative. The changes had a significant effect on burglary detection rates, a moderate effect on numbers of incidents and partnership working at practitioner level, but little effect on relationships with partner agencies at a strategic level.