Investigations into more than two thirds of burglaries and vehicle crimes are being closed without a suspect being identified.
More than 60 per cent of robberies and two thirds of cases of criminal damage and arson in England and Wales are also closed unsolved, according to an analysis by the BBC of 18 million crimes between 2012 and last year.
In Greater Manchester no suspect was identified in 85 per cent of burglaries while in Surrey 79 per cent of criminal damage and arson cases were concluded unsolved. Across England and Wales about three quarters of bicycle thefts were closed this way. Success rates were higher for violent crime, sexual offences and drug offences.
Earlier this year The Times revealed that police had abandoned early-stage investigations into more than 1.5 million crimes during the past four years.
Data obtained under freedom of information law revealed that forces were routinely dropping investigations because of a lack of evidence. The practice of screening out crimes, in which a police force marks a case as requiring “no further action”, grew from 361,180 in 2010 to 597,315 last year. In 2015-16 51 per cent of crimes had no suspects, according to the Home Office.