Every July/ August time, a huge piece of data gets released that directly affects the home security industry. The Office of National Statistics releases its Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) using data from police recorded crime, and this year is no different. This survey tells us lots of different facts about various crimes, not all relevant to us, or to you, so we took our time analysing their webpage and downloadable spreadsheets (you can find these here). We did this because it tells us how crime is shifting over the years so in turn, we can stock the best performing products to counteract the most common crimes and so our time will know what products to recommend to you that will actually benefit you. In this article we will be covering topics from the CSEW that affect you and can directly be reduced with various home security products, this is:
Police reliability and the public's attitude towards them
Trends and statistics regarding theft and burglary
Trends and statistics regarding threats to safety
Key takeaways & our professional recommendations to protect yourself
Police Reliability
Before we touch on the actions of criminals, we should probably talk about the actions of the police, or lack thereof. The thought process behind this is simple, if the police aren't performing their duties to a satisfactory standard, criminals will be more likely to succeed and more likely to strike again. So, what do the people surveyed by the ONS themselves say about our boys in blue? Well, only 48% of people in England and Wales say the police actually respond to and deal with locals' concerns! That is a worrying statistic if you have a home security breach. This might be because 55% percent of said they hadn't seen a single foot patrol officer at all during the year this data was captured. Unfortunately, it does make sense, how could police be dealing with what you and I are actually concerned with when over half of the population hasn't even interacted with them for an entire year?
But it's not just about this year, let's have a look at the trends over the past decade or so. Since 2012, the percentage of people who say the police do a good job (however you define good) has fallen from 62% down to 49%. This downward trend tells us that the public is losing their faith in the force. Why? Well maybe it's the higher risk to their home security. Since 2014, the number of victims of crimes who were happy with the police work carried out on their case has dropped from 43% to only 25%. If we judge their satisfaction based on catching criminals or even closing the case with a determined outcome, that means 3 in 4 victims of crime this year have been left without answers.
We don't want to drag the police through the mud; we know they're incredibly understaffed and we respect what they're able to do with what they have. We're just managing our expectations by sharing the data.
Thefts & Burglaries
The reliability of the police force is only a factor IF there's a break in and you have no home security back up, how worried do you actually need to be after seeing the theft and burglary crime statistics. To be fair to the police force, the ONS CSEW says that crime as a whole is reducing and it is. But there were still 2.6 million thefts between April 2025 and March 2026. Quite Frankly, the data suggest that these thefts are from lazy, opportunistic criminals. This is because the number of break ins into a person's home has reduced, but to counteract this decrease, theft from outside a dwelling" increased by 21%! The ONS don't explicitly explain what this means but we believe in terms of home security it's fair to assume this is because of the rise of porch pirates and electronically transmitted vehicle thefts.
Robberies overall have increased by 10% however, the ONS claims that this is due to new reporting methods and practices specifically on business properties. If they state the robberies themselves haven't changed, that could mean these businesses were still being targeted, and just not recorded in previous versions of this survey. The CSEW webpage also states that reports after incidents of shoplifting are "known to be very low" already and the "submission of supporting evidence, such as CCTV, to strengthen intelligence, identify offenders, and link related offences" is encouraged. This suggestion from the ONS tells us that is not just home security we need, but business security, because there are so many more unreported offences of retail thefts and robberies.
Personal Safety
The bottom line is CCTV and intruder alarms are about peace of mind and feeling safe in your own property. So we investigated more than just theft and burglaries, we also unravelled the changes in harassment and anti-social behaviour and let's just say it's not much better. Out of all the people surveyed, 40.9% they have at least witnessed some kind of anti-social behaviour. The website states that the police and & fire rescue acknowledge they need to improve their response to this.
Tested in a separate survey but still relative to our home security safety net, 2.9% of people in over the age of 16 have been experienced cases of slaking. It's cases like this where peace of mind in your own home is absolutely paramount. If you don't feel safe an effective system is the first step towards giving you somewhere that you don't have to look over your shoulder.
This year alone, 1 in 10 people from the age of only 16 have also experienced some kind of harassment, for 3.9% of the population, that harassment is sexual. The remaining 7.8% recorded is non-sexual. Unfortunately these aren't isolated cases either, repeat harassment has risen to 3.5% of the population (roughly 1.7 million people) in the last year.
Home security systems like ours can help prevent and capture evidence of horrific attempts like this, making use of your system and helping a police investigation will also turn the tides on their reliability and our attitudes towards them.
Key Takeaways
As a whole, crime overall is reducing, but in doing so the way criminals behave is shifting. Businesses and garden thefts are becoming the new targets of 2026 moving into 2027. Over the last decade and a half, faith and satisfaction in the police force is falling. And nearly half of the population as witnessed or been a victim to anti-social behaviour and harassment. While crime may be lowering, it's not completely gone. A home security system protecting your home in 2027 can help keep you safe during these times.
After looking through these statistics and practical applications here are the physical steps we recommend you look into:
1. If you want to support the police force with investigating cases you or a friend were involved with, combatting antisocial behaviour or keeping an eye on your belongings. A CCTV system provides around the clock evidence and monitoring you can use from anywhere.
2. If you want to prevent potential intruders, stalkers, harassers or anyone unknown form getting into your property, we recommend one of our wireless intruder alarms which harness contact breaks, motion detectors and sirens draw attention and scare off unwanted guests.
3. Of course, having evidence of potential break ins, thefts or people on your property is handy, both CCTV & Intruder alarms make the ultimate home security system. And to make your lives easier with setup and compatibility, SPRO CCTV integrates with Dahua AirShield intruder alarms seamlessly.
Keep yourself, loved ones and your safe space secure going into 2027, don't leave it chance now you know exactly what's at stake.
