Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Criminal damage to vehicles

How do we reduce criminal damage to vehicles?

What interventions work to prevent cars being 'keyed' and tyre slashing?

Has there been any analysis of police recorded crime to see if attempted theft from a vehicle is being recorded as damage to a vehicle?

How do we reduce criminal damage to vehicles?

• There is limited specific information available on the nature of this form of criminal damage. However, our guide 'Tackling Damage to Vehicles' is a good place to start. The general principles of problem solving still apply, and successful solutions will tackle one or more of victim, offender and location. Problem analysis may help to identify patterns in the location, time and form the damage takes and may lead to a solution. For example, damage to vehicles may occur in streets near to a pub at closing time. Our guide, ‘Criminal Damage – Problem Analysis’ describes how to use data to understand what is happening.
• Some damage to vehicles is linked to Anti Social Behaviour, such as running over cars. Working with Anti Social Behaviour Coordinators may help to identify appropriate interventions.
  
  

What interventions work to prevent cars being ‘keyed’ and tyre slashing?

• Mapping the locations, times of day and day of week, helps to develop an understanding of what is happening and assist in directing relevant resources. For instance you may identify a spot to locate covert or overt surveillance or may be able to map linkages to licensed premises, night time economy venues, and routes home from schools. Our Guide, “Criminal Damage – Problem Analysis” describes how to use data to understand what is happening.
• The Jill Dando Institute used this problem identification approach when tackling tyre slashing in the West Midlands, this helped identify a prolific offender.
• If the hot spot is a car park then achieving the standards of the Police Safer Parking Scheme will help. You may wish to consider seeking to extend their opening hours into the night, if this fits the profile of your damage to vehicles.

Has there been any analysis of police recorded crime to see if attempted theft from a vehicle is being recorded as damage to a vehicle?

• The issue of recording damage to vehicles and (attempted) theft of and from vehicles is a well established one. However tight the Counting Rules for Recorded Crime are, and big improvements have been made with the introduction of Force Crime Registrars, an element of discretion will always be required by those recording the crime. The key message is that one should be aware of it when looking at any performance or problem profiles, and consider the role it may be playing.
• When considering trends or performance of damage to vehicles, it is a good idea to also look at theft of/from vehicles. If they are both going up, then it is likley there is a genuine problem; if one is going down while the other goes up by the same amount, it is possible that a change in recording practices has occurred. It is difficult to get firm evidence on whether this is actually happening, but possibilities include: speaking to staff who record crime and see if they have changed their practices; looking at the MO and similar information and see if the nature of the damage to vehicles has changed - is the increase mainly in damage to side windows and/or locks, as opposed to dents and scratches or broken mirrors?
• When carrying out problem analysis, it may be worth excluding those crimes of damage to vehicles which appear to be attempted theft, and see if a different pattern emerges to when they are included.
• Damage to vehicles represents a large proportion of criminal damage overall. Recorded crime figures (2006/07) show that 40% of criminal damage was damage to vehicles. As with all criminal damage, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the level of damage from police records alone. It is estimated that less than one in three incidents of criminal damage is reported to the police (BCS 2006/07).
• The British Crime Survey (BCS 2006/07) measured 2,993,00 offences of vandalism, of which just under 1.9 million were offences of vandalism to vehicles. This represents 17% of all BCS offences. The BCS data for 2005/06 shows that most damage to private vehicles involved scratched body work (38%), damaged body work (23%) and damage to wing mirrors (21%). This kind of damage is less likely to have been caused as a result of attempted theft from a vehicle. However, it could be that increased car ownership and pressures on parking spaces may have resulted in increased accidental damage which, when the incident has not been witnessed, may not always be easy for a householder to distinguish from criminal damage.
  
  

Last update: Wednesday, April 02, 2008