Everyone reporting crime 'entitled to a response'

John Tizard told the BBC that "anyone who reports a serious crime or dials 999 should be receiving an immediate response"

Bedfordshire's police and crime commissioner has insisted that "wherever you are in the county, you are entitled to and will get a good response" if you report a crime.

Labour's John Tizard spoke to BBC Three Counties Radio at an outside broadcast in Leighton Buzzard, where resident Caroline Gates claimed police "were not interested" when her cafe was "broken into several times".

Mr Tizard said "anyone who reports a serious crime or dials 999 should be receiving an immediate response".

Community policing chief inspector Jim Goldsmith added: "Our teams are committed to supporting business owners and residents, with a priority focus on shoplifting and related offences of handling stolen goods."

Caroline Gates told BBC Three Counties Radio presenter Andy Collins that police "were not interested" when she reported break-ins at her cafe

Ms Gates, who runs the Room Number 9 cafe, said: "When we have been broken into and it has been quite major unfortunately, the police are not interested, even with really good CCTV footage."

Bedfordshire Police confirmed two cases had been investigated that related to Ms Gates's claims.

Ms Gates said: "Nobody comes out if there is an incident and if they do come out criminals are never prosecuted, even though they know who they are."

In response, Mr Tizard said: "There are nearly fifteen hundred police officers [in the county] ready to respond and they are specialists".

He added the government's new policing guarantee would mean almost £2m of extra funding for the county this year and "more police on the streets".

BBC Three Counties Radio presenter Andy Collins asked him about the lack of a police station in the town, but Mr Tizard said: "We do not have a station any more, but we have a police hub where officers and community support officers are based."

He added an actual station would "not be optimum because it would require officers to be sat running it, rather than being out on the streets and dealing with crime".

Ch Insp Goldsmith said the force had seen "an increase in solved rates for shoplifting crimes of 105.4% between 1 October 2023 and 31 September 2024 when compared to the previous year".

He added that in addition to prison sentences, the force had "other tools at our disposal".

He said they included "criminal behaviour orders that impose strict conditions on perpetrators to reduce their ability to re-offend".