Burglaries adding up in Belgium

According to the latest figures, burglaries are keeping Belgium’s police extremely busy with an average of 208 reported incidents each day across the country. The government report reveals that in 2012 police received 75,570 reports of homes broken into. In the first half of last year the number reached 37,785. Of the reported cases, 3% involved violence.

The report also showed that along with homes, shops are often the target of robberies, an issue that interior minister Joëlle Milquet would like to focus more on preventing. Milquet is calling for stepped-up security surrounding shopping areas and is working on creating programmes to enable information-sharing between police and merchants. If successful, the project will help better prepare individuals in preventing crime.