Residential burglary
Investigation — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
The College of Policing's Authorised Professional Practice outlines the responsibilities of all Home Office police forces regarding residential burglary. Effective police responses include attendance to all incidents, collaboration with partners to bring offenders to justice, efforts to reduce the fear of burglary, and ensuring victims receive a professional response. The guide emphasizes the importance of taking all reasonable steps to identify suspects and recover stolen property, even when immediate identification is not possible. Key response aspects include developing intelligence on crime hotspots, maintaining a victim-focused approach, and using timely arrests and crime prevention initiatives.
Key principles
- 1Attend all residential burglaries.
- 2Develop intelligence to address crime hotspots and identify prolific offenders.
- 3Adopt a victim-focused approach.
- 4Utilize timely arrests for recovery opportunities.
- 5Implement crime prevention and reduction initiatives.
Defined terms
- Residential burglary
- Refer to the Residential burglary practice guide for the complete definition.
- National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC)
- The council responsible for policing leadership in the UK.
Full guidance
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
All Home Office police forces will attend every residential burglary of a home, as agreed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in October 2022.
The police have a responsibility to work with partners, homeowners and communities to:
bring offenders to justice * reduce the fear of burglary * ensure that victims receive a professional response * prevent offences taking place
Even where it is not possible to identify a suspect, victims want to know the crime has been taken seriously, and that police have taken all reasonable steps to identify and arrest the perpetrator and recover any stolen property.
See a full definition of residential burglary in our Residential burglary practice guide .
An effective police response to residential burglary should include:
attendance to all residential burglaries * development of intelligence to respond to emerging crime hot spots and help to identify and arrest prolific offenders * a victim-focused approach * effective use of golden hour and further investigation actions, following all reasonable lines of enquiry * making timely arrests when appropriate to facilitate search and seizure opportunities and recover stolen goods * making effective use of pre- and post-charge bail options to reduce further offending * using ‘taking into consideration’ opportunities where appropriate * recovering stolen property where possible * developing crime prevention and reduction initiatives, problem solving and offender disruption
For further information see:
from our Neighbourhood crime evidence briefing * our Domestic burglary evidence briefing
These resources should be read in conjunction with the other sections of this APP on Investigation .
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.