Tool Thefts 2020-25

Request

Please provide data on all recorded theft offences between 1 January 2020 and the most recent available month in 2025 where the Modus Operandi (MO), item description, or any other searchable field contains the word “tool” or “tools”.

For each calendar year in this period, please provide:

1. The total number of such offences recorded.

2. The offence type (e.g. burglary, theft from a vehicle, other theft).

3. The broad location of the offence (e.g. town, city, or first half of postcode).

4. The recorded outcome (e.g. charge, arrest, no suspect identified).

5. If available, the total estimated value of tools reported stolen.

Response

I approached our Performance Review Unit for assistance with your request. An analyst within this unit has conducted a search of our Crime Management System - Connect which records complaints or allegations of those matters, which the Home Office specify should be recorded as 'crimes'. All our systems are designed and used first and foremost for Policing Purposes and have limited search capability. They provided me with the below in response and the following explanation regarding their search criteria:

All the questions have been answered using the below criteria.  Please note that the Home Office offence groups included in this data set are as follows – “BURGLARY, ROBBERY, THEFT, VEHICLE OFFENCES”.  A breakdown by HO Sub Group is provided. 

Criteria used –

SYP & crime only filter

and       Incident Created Date is between 01/01/2020 and 31/07/2025

and       HO Group Name is equal to BURGLARY, ROBBERY, THEFT, VEHICLE OFFENCES

and       Property Status is equal to Stolen, Stolen / Recovered

and        Property Class 2 is equal to / is in Tools

or           Property Class 3 is equal to / is in Garden Tools

or           Initial MO is LIKE (pattern match) %tool%

Please note –

• Spelling mistakes and variations of keywords cannot be accounted for and as such will not be captured and therefore not included.
• Keyword searches are unreliable, the reasons why searches using this method are not reliable include (but are not limited to) the following: –

1. a) Spelling errors
2. b) Variations of the keyword
3. c) Non mandatory recording of keywords

• It is not possible to provide an accurate figure for the monetary value as both the ‘Property Value’ and ‘Quantity’ fields are not mandated requirements, and therefore not recorded for all offences. In addition, if both ‘Property Value’ and ‘Quantity’ are recorded, then we are not certain whether the value recorded relates to multiple items or individual items i.e. Property – bike, Value 300, Quantity 2 (we cannot determine if the value is 300 per bike or 150 per bike).
• Extracted on 14/08/2025. Data from CONNECT only. This is a live recording system and may be subject to change.

Question 1+2 

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Please note, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that data has been extracted from data sources used by this force for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording systems and information assets.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures/data for any requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data sets are used.

Police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.