The ‘stolen’ data provided by the DVLA will, as described at ‘recording methodologies‘, always understate the actual LoS (Lost or Stolen) records held by a constabulary which, will also not detail the full extent of the issue. Furthermore, constabulary data is lacking much of that which would be expected to enable accurate analysis to be undertaken.
West Mercia 2023 DVLA CAR LoS data:
In 2023, according to the DVLA, they received 815 ‘stolen’ notifications and became aware of 374 recoveries – a recovery rate of about 46%:
However, in 2023, according to West Mercia Police records, they recorded an additional 83 stolen cars, about 10% more, a total of 898 cars.
Of these, 300 were marked as ‘found’ or ‘recovered’, about 33% of the total number taken.
Whilst overall (2023 to 2024) vehicle taking is believed to have dropped, West Mercia is one of the constabularies that saw an increase in ‘stolen’ numbers and a decrease in their recovery rate:
West Mercia 2024 DVLA CAR LoS data:
In 2024, the DVLA received 914 ‘stolen’ notifications from W. Mercia Police (the records can be found here) and became aware of 385 recoveries – a recovery rate of about 42%:
However, in 2024, according to West Mercia Police records, they recorded an additional 72 stolen cars, a total of 986 cars.
Of these, 254 were marked as ‘found’ or ‘recovered’, about 26% of the total number taken.
Clarification has been sought:
Whilst I thank you for the information provided, please could you address the following.
I note reference to the data not being ‘mandatory’ but it is not understood how the input data would not be generated from the VRM and in turn most fields populated automatically. The questions below should help to convey the anomalies that do not appear to arise from a manual input.
- How are the fields relating to vehicle description input?
Whilst you advise:
‘whilst it is best practise to upload the property link reason from stolen to recovered if it is found, it is not always completed, especially where it takes a prolonged period to locate the vehicle, or the vehicle was found by another force. As such the vehicles listed as stolen may not still be outstanding.’
a vehicle not marked ‘recovered’ i.e. not removed from the PNC LoS register, that retains the LoS marker will, for example, provide a false-positive to ANPR; alert as stolen whereas it is not, giving rise to a waste of police resources and inconvenience for the party in possession of the vehicle.
- From where has your ‘recovered’ & ‘found’ data been obtained, if not from the PNC?
It appears the information is being sourced from another data set. In turn, that you are unable to provide, if asked, meaningful recovery information – see ‘8’ below.
2023 – The offence table conveys a total of 1,616 vehicles taken. The spreadsheet on individual vehicles conveys a total of 1,497, a difference of 209 vehicles.
- Please can you explain this.
The difference cannot be explained by removing the ‘attempted’ offences as these total 37 for the year.
- 2023/24 – What is the difference between ‘found’ and ‘recovered’
- 2023, 10 of the taken vehicles are without vehicle category, type, make or model why?
- 2024 this applies to 24 vehicles – I assume the explanation to be the same as above – please confirm or clarify
- Of the 10, 7 have a ‘VRM2’ i.e. the VRM age identifier; how is this possible yet provision of the aforementioned identifiers is not?
- 2024, of the 24 vehicles, 23 have an age identifier. I assume the explanation for the lack of accompanying data will be as above – please confirm or clarify
- 11 ‘vehicle make’ entries are held under ‘ROVER’, yet the model is ‘RANGE ROVER’; how has this arisen?
The associated ‘make’ I would anticipate being ‘LAND ROVER’, as recorded in multiple other entries.
- Please could you review the data as it pertains to stolen/recovered cars in 2024. According to the DVLA they received notification of 385 car recoveries, your data indicates W Mercia police recovered 131 cars less, a total of 254 i.e. a recovery rate of just 26%
The DVLA data can be found here – https://carcrime.uk/dvla-stolen-car-data-w-mercia-police/