Burglary crackdown in South Yorkshire after rise in incidents
There's been a rise of almost a fifth in two years
Police are going into thousands of homes in South Yorkshire to help stem a rise in burglary across the county.
The force say they're rebuilding trust and taking pro-active steps to tackle it - after an almost 20 percent rise in incidents since 2016.
Operation Shield is happening in parts of Sheffield and Doncaster but could eventually be rolled out across the county.
DCI Lee Berry told us they're using new techniques - like something called Smartwater - to catch those carrying out the crimes:
"We will be leaving a traceable liquid in some properties which means it'll transfer on to the offender. Our police resources and partners are then set up to identify that at a later date, If someon's marked with the forensic liquid we'll be able to prove they committed that burglary.
"It's a high impact crime on the victim because it affects them emotionally and it's a high impact crime on the police and partners to be able to respond to her. If we can reduce the volume, there's less impact on the victims and that allows me to re-deploy my resources to different areas that are needed."
Officers are starting in targetted areas which have been badly affected by burglaries.
DCI Berry says it'll expand though:
"There'll be 9,000 homes that'll be targetted across Doncaster and Sheffield. This is just the start of the initiative - it's here to stay. We hope to be able to push it out to other areas. the property will be marked up with the forensic marking, as will property you can move such as mobile phones and laptops."
The project's funded by South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings - he says it's vital:
"It's very distressing for people who are burgled - we get a lot of representations saying what is the police doing about it so I'm very happy to fund this initiative to make a real impact on the burglary figures for our area.
"This is really sending out a message to people - because of the Smartwater - you will be caught."