IF your home is burgled in this area, there's just a 20 per cent chance the police will catch the culprit.

That's the depressing new statistic gleaned from Home Office figures, which show that West Mercia Police closes the case on eight out of 10 home burglaries without identifying a suspect.

For the 12 months up to March 2018, there were 4,734 household burglary cases and 81 per cent were categorised as “investigation complete – no suspect identified”.

This isn't due to incompetent police, of course. We are fortunate in West Mercia to have a team of highly skilled and dedicated officers. No, the truth is that there simply aren't enough officers in West Mercia to properly investigate every offence, following years of government funding cuts.

Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, says that fewer officers have led to forces having to prioritise cases with a realistic prospect of prosecution.

So don't ask 'Why are our police failing?', ask 'Why is our government failing our police?'