Tool theft

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/003529/H

Version Date: 21/08/2025

The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information.

Data Source:

Contact information system – Storm

Data Processing:

Keyword search in the incident comment and description of ‘tool’ and ‘tools’ and a disposal of theft or robbery.
Time frame: 1 January 2020 to 24 July 2025.

1. The number of reported incidents of tool theft recorded by your police force for each of the last five calendar years (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), and if available, year-to-date data for 2025.
   
   
   

2. For each year, please provide a breakdown of:
   o The number of thefts from vehicles, residential properties, construction sites, or commercial premises (if this categorisation is available).
   
   We do not record location data using categories like these, however the SC Description is useful in differentiating, e.g., Attempt theft from motor vehicle (recordable) would indicate a vehicle, Theft from shops and stalls (Shoplifting) would indicate a commercial premises. This is included in the table for question 1.

o          The estimated total value of tools reported stolen . Theseeach year (if recorded).
If some elements of this request exceed the cost/time limits of the FOI Act, I would be grateful if you could prioritise Part 1 (the number of incidents by year) and advise on how I may refine the remainder of the request to stay within acceptable limits.

Please note that cost/value is not a mandatory field, and only very partial information is recorded. The number items with no estimated value (blanks) and the number of items which do have an estimated value have been included to illustrate this. There are some occurrences with multiple items listed.