REVEALED: Only four per cent of burglaries solved inside six months

The shock figures reveal West Midlands Police recorded 14,081 burglaries from January 1 to June 30.

But out of those, just 601 have been solved with the suspect being charged in connection with the burglary or another offence.

In 24 cases the force said it was not in the public interest to solve the crime, while in 83 instances the victim did not support police.

Officers faced evidential difficulties in 251 cases.

And in 12,483 instances, the crime was recorded but no suspect was identified and the investigation was dropped.

Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, said ‘it was very sad’ a fall in officers meant the force could not effectively deal with burglaries.

He said the force today had a similar level of officers to in 1974.

He said: “Given the scarcity of resources, what I believe has happened is that we are forced to prioritise crime depending on the level of threat, risk and harm to members of the public, as well as the likelihood of success and viable lines of enquiry – the logic being that we need to focus our efforts on those offences where we have the greatest chance of bringing an offender to justice.

“It is very sad that it has reached a point where we are so stretched we cannot get to everyone that needs us.

“This is why we need urgent new and significant investment in the police and a government committed to restoring law and order.”

Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson said budget cuts and fewer officers had meant the force was unable to tackle everything.

He said: “On some occasions the service will not meet what I want it to do and it will not meet the response that the public absolutely will want when they’re at a time of vulnerability.

“We are drawing the bar higher than we used to as to what we will investigate.”