Policing urban burglary

This paper presents a spatial and temporal analysis of burglary patterns in the Australian Capital Territory, including profiles of arrested burglary suspects. It then discusses issues surrounding Operation Anchorage, an intelligence driven burglary reduction operation recently conducted by the Australian Federal Police. Some of the complexities in developing an effective crime reduction strategy are discussed in relation to both Operation Anchorage and earlier policing initiatives. While Operation Anchorage resulted in a short term drop in the number of burglaries in the A.C.T., it seems likely that a long term drop in burglaries post operation cannot be sustained. The paper concludes that the challenge for police is to coordinate a long term burglary reduction strategy that might involve outside partners.