Policing teams across Southampton, Eastleigh, and Hedge End are imploring victims of robbery, and those who witness incidents, to come forward at the earliest opportunity and report offences to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. 

An analysis of robbery crime reports across the areas indicate offences are often being reported to the police several hours after the initial incident has taken place.

Hampshire Constabulary says this has a detrimental impact on the ability of officers to carry out thorough and comprehensive investigations.

Detective Chief Inspector, Matt Gillooly, said: “Robbery of any kind can be particularly harrowing for victims who are often subjected to violence, or fear of violence, as part of the ordeal they face at the hands of their attackers.

“We want to appeal to anyone who has been a victim of a robbery to report it to us directly after it has happened as this gives us the best chance to deploy local officers to the scene and begin carrying out relevant lines of enquiry as soon as possible.

“This will afford officers a greater probability of either identifying or locating a suspect in the local area and bringing them to justice in front of the courts via our investigations.”  

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Hampshire Constabulary has stated that offences committed against a person – where money or property is taken – are often interchangeably described as “theft,” “burglary,” and “robbery”.

Often, when taking reports of incidents, police hear victims tell call handlers that ‘I have been robbed’ as a catch-all for theft offences - but these are actually different offences.

Chief Inspector Gillooly added: “Unfortunately, we are seeing a trend whereby peer-on-peer offending between young people is occurring, but that these offences are not reported to us directly by the victim at the time of the offence, but the parents of the victims – sometimes many hours or potentially days after the offence has been committed.

“If you, or someone you know has been a victim of robbery, we would strongly encourage you to report it to us immediately without delay by calling 999 if an incident is taking place or by making a report via the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary report.

“To offer some reassurance, we are not currently seeing an increase in these types of offences in local areas – but we want residents to be aware that Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is fully committed to relentlessly pursuing criminals who pose a threat and those who continue to cause harm in our local communities.”