A POLICE chief has warned the public about the risk of burglary, county lines drug exploitation and violent offences.

Superintendent Shaun Virtue, commander for Bracknell and Wokingham, gave an overview of his three main priorities at a briefing at Maidenhead Police Station on Friday, November 9.

A 20 per cent surge in burglaries has been reported in the last 12 months, with offenders becoming ‘more forensically aware’ – making it harder for officers to catch thieves.

Supt Virtue said: “In certain categories it looks like it has risen, but next month we could be back even. It fluctuates.

“There are a total of 500 cases of burglary a year across the Thames Valley so we are managing quite well, but public prevention on burglary is key.”

Dealing with drugs is another subject on his list of priorities and he wants to tackle county lines offences and ‘identify young victims who are vulnerable’.

He described how the force have seen children as young as 13 getting involved with this type of offending.

The local policing area commander added: “The more significant danger is those getting taken over by the drugs line in public areas looking to target those young victims.

“The knock-on affect down the line is that people will go down to London and get involved in gangs.”

Thames Valley Police aim to reduce the problem by talking to ex-gang members, implementing a serious youth violence strategy.

In terms of general violent offences, he believes there is not a dramatic increase in knife crime but ‘it is nowhere near the national trend’.

He added: “There’s a prevalence in Bracknell and Wokingham College search arches to establish people carrying weapons. But mainly people who carry drugs have knives, so we have to implement stop and search targets.”

Supt Virtue wants to inform the public about how to use the 999 service properly, due to the strain on policing resources and a lack of knowledge about the non-emergency number (101).

He added: “Because of the budget cuts, the force has been reduced by 3,700 police officers in the last five to 10 years.”

Nearly a third of all calls dealt with by the force are not relevant to policing matters and half of the calls should have been addressed to the non-emergency team.

“This maximises police capacity and officers time so we encourage people to think are you ringing the right service.”

He gave an example of how someone calling the emergency 999 number for a stolen bicycle is something that can be done using the online report a crime service.