HAVE POLICE GIVEN UP CHASING CRIMINALS?

As shocking new figures reveal four in five burglaries and three-quarters of vehicle thefts now go unsolved, we ask...

POLICE are failing to catch the vast majority of burglars, car thieves and shoplifters, shocking figures reveal today.

Latest statistics show officers are closing four out of five burglary investigations,

three-quarters of car thefts probes and nearly half of shoplifting cases without identifying a suspect.

The falling detection rates could “undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prevent people reporting in the future”, campaigners warned. And critics fear the alarming figures will give criminals the “green light” to wreak havoc.

Police chiefs say they are being forced to “prioritise” serious crimes amid falling officer numbers and rising demand, but said all offences were taken seriously.

Last year shoplifting reached its highest level since records began, but 47 per cent of cases were closed without a culprit caught.

Alex Mayes from the Victim Support charity said: “We know these types of crime can have a big impact on victims. While it may be seen as ‘low level’, burglary, especially, is extremely violating.”

Today’s analysis, compiled using figures from Home Office crime outcomes, showed some of the country’s largest forces – with the most officers per head of the population – were among those with the highest percentages of cases closed without a suspect.

Despite nearly 250,000 burglaries between April 2017 and March this year, 81 per cent were shut down without a culprit identified.

Both the Metropolitan Police and the Manchester force closed 88 per cent of home break-in cases and West Midlands shut down 90 per cent.

Former policing minister David Hanson told the Daily Express: “These are serious crimes which affect householders, citizens and businesses. The failure to investigate or identify a suspect is something I know the police will be unhappy with.

“But it is a consequence of police not being on the ground.”

Vehicle thefts also reached an eight-year-high. The UK’s 44 forces logged 106,334 offences of theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle from 2017-18.

All but five forces closed more than half of these cases without identifying a suspect, with 81,788 offences put down as “investigation complete – no suspect identified”. West Midlands identified a suspect in just nine per cent of cases while the Met closed 85 per cent of vehicle thefts without a suspect being identified.

Only City of London Police had a higher percentage, 96 per cent – but it recorded just 54 offences.

The total recorded shoplifting crimes, 382,100, are the highest for an April-March period since records were introduced in 2002.

But 47 per cent of cases closed without a suspect being traced – a rise of four percentage points year-on-year.

Leicestershire Police failed to find the culprit in 63 per cent of shoplifting crimes, followed by Greater Manchester Police with 59 per cent.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs committee, said: “Too many investigations are closing without suspects being identified and we are

hearing increasing reports of police being too overstretched to investigate.

“Failing to identify suspects gives criminals a green light to reoffend.”

Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for acquisitive crime, said increased demand and fewer officers have led to forces prioritising cases with a realistic prospect of prosecution. The Met said: “The

new Crime Assessment Policy is designed to help officers strike a proportionate balance between resources applied to a secondary investigation and the likely outcome of the investigation.

“It is not a ‘blanket’ policy that will mean that some crime types will not be investigated.”

Greater Manchester Police deputy chief constable Ian Pilling said: “The reduction in the number of officers we have and the changing nature and complexity of crime means we have to focus resources where they are needed most. With increases in online crime, as well as child sexual exploitation and modern slavery, we have to make tough decisions.”

West Midlands Police said: “Our officers are committed to following the trail of evidence in all the cases, but if an investigation finds no witnesses, CCTV or forensic evidence, the chance of identifying offenders is vastly reduced.” It has emerged violent crime has soared in rural areas with the fewest police on the beat.

Home Office figures said the number of patrolling officers fell by a third, from 23,928 in March 2015 to 16,557 in March 2018.

Sussex has the fewest bobbies on the beat, with just 8.3 officers patrolling 100,000 people.