West Midlands Police have reported notable progress in reducing various types of neighbourhood crime across the region, according to new statistics and the latest annual report from Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster.
The data reveals that offences such as burglary, personal robbery, theft, and vehicle crime all saw significant decreases in the year ending March 2026 compared with figures from two years earlier. House burglaries, for example, fell from 14,155 to 10,308, while personal robberies dropped considerably from 7,426 to 4,593.
Theft offences declined from 3,537 to 2,535, and vehicle crime reports were down from 34,032 to 27,198 over the same period. These reductions highlight the effectiveness of crime reduction efforts across the West Midlands.
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However, the report also identified an area of concern: an increase in business-related crime. Reports of business crime rose slightly from 53,886 in 2024 to 55,271 in 2026, largely driven by a 30.2% surge in shoplifting offences.
Commissioner Foster emphasised the mixed nature of this trend, noting that while shoplifting incidents have increased, positive outcomes for these cases more than doubled to 30%, representing a 15.6 percentage point improvement compared with the baseline year.
Fraud and cybercrime reports also rose from 15,877 to 17,362, which is attributed to ongoing initiatives encouraging greater reporting of these offences that are typically under-reported on a national scale.
The report indicates that every Local Policing Area experienced reductions in neighbourhood crime, with Coventry seeing the largest decrease at 39.2%, followed by Wolverhampton at 34.5% and Solihull at 26%.
Overall, the figures demonstrate significant advancements in tackling neighbourhood crime, with a 24.54% reduction in total offences since the baseline year. Still, the rise in business crime, particularly shoplifting, presents challenges that West Midlands Police continue to address.