Three quarters don’t expect police to bother investigating bike thefts
Three quarters don’t expect police to bother investigating bike thefts
Posted on 4 Oct 2022
More than three quarters of British people do not believe the police would bother to investigate instances of bicycle theft, a new YouGov survey has found.
According to the poll, bike thefts rank top of the list of crimes British people don’t expect police to look into thoroughly, ahead of mobile phone snatching, phone and internet scams, and shoplifting.
84% of those surveyed also believe that it is unlikely that bike thieves will be caught and convicted, with over half claiming that it is “not likely at all” that criminals stealing bicycles will be found guilty in court.
According to YouGov, 77% don’t expect their local police force to properly investigate reports of bike theft, the highest level for any of the 15 crimes included in the survey.
Just 11% of those surveyed think that the police would attempt to pursue leads and catch the culprit or culprits.
In comparison, 70% showed a lack of confidence in the police to investigate mobile phone thefts and phone or internet scams, while 67 and 65% reckon that they have detected apathy within the police towards shoplifting and anti-social behaviour, respectively.
Not surprisingly, 84% believe that it is unlikely that bike thieves will be “caught, found guilty and sentenced in court”, while 55% reckoned it was “highly unlikely”.