POLICING IN MELTDOWN

With 1,012 rapists and 343 killers on the run, official watchdog delivers devastating report on failing forces

TENS of thousands of crime suspects are on the loose because of the ‘near perilous’ state of policing.

The official watchdog says many cases are being shelved without proper investigation, emergency calls downgraded and victims left in danger.

Almost 46,000 suspects are now on the police wanted database including 343 sought for murder or manslaughter and 1,012 for rape.

The hard-hitting report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary accused the 43 forces of England and Wales of failing the public.

Zoe Billingham, who heads the watchdog, said: ‘We are leading to a very serious conclusion regarding the potentially perilous state of British policing in this report. We are raising a red flag: it is a large red flag.’ Her inspection concluded that: A shortage of detectives and investigators amounted to a ‘national crisis’;

Constabularies wrote off too many domestic abuse cases;

2,700 sex offenders had not been fully assessed for the risk they posed to the public;

Only 19 per cent of the public had seen a beat bobby in the past month as the decline

of community policing continued;

Gangs of dangerous criminals were not being formally classified and monitored.

Police unions blamed crippling cuts to budgets as part of the national austerity drive.

Since 2009 – the year before the Tory-led coalition came to power – forces have lost around 21,500 officers. Miss Billingham said the issues facing the police were not solely down to the budget cuts imposed by the Government.

Twenty per cent of the 45,960 wanted suspects on the database were being sought for theft and one in eight for violence. Other main categories included terrorism and firearms offences.

HMIC said it had serious concerns that forces were taking ‘insufficient action’ to actively find suspects. It added: ‘Too often suspects wanted in connection with crimes are not being tracked down relentlessly.’

Among those who have fled justice is a man alleged to have shot

‘How long before someone dies?’

dead a teenager and then a mother of three 12 months later.

Others on the run include a Syrian migrant rapist who fled to Turkey half way through his trial last year. HMIC found that the details of at least 67,000 people suspected of committing offences were not on the database – if stopped in another part of the country it would not flag up that they were wanted.

Inspectors said the public was being left at ‘unacceptable risk’ because some hard-pressed forces were downgrading emergency calls. This meant officers would be permitted to respond to a call within an hour, instead of the standard 15 minutes.

Another tactic was that of failing to send officers to domestic abuse incidents. The 128-page report said the ‘unwelcome practices’ had the effect of ‘artificially suppressing the demand for the police to take prompt and effective action’. The watchdog said this was a form of rationing of police services.

One in five investigations were never taken further because the victim ‘ did not support police action’. In domestic abuse cases, this rose to a third. Inspectors said some forces were using this option to close investigations prematurely.

The report said: ‘Overuse of this outcome is likely to mean that far too many perpetrators of extremely harmful domestic abuse crimes are not being brought to justice and victims are being failed by the police.’

Miss Billingham said: ‘ We have seen how some forces are attempting to reduce pressure on their teams by artificially suppressing or downgrading calls upon their service, reducing their ability to take the most effective and prompt action. This is often an unintended consequence of recent changes forces have made, frequently in response to the challenge of austerity, and as they struggle to respond to increasing and ever changing levels of demand.

‘Consequently, some basic things are not being done. We found evidence of fewer arrests being made, some crimes are being shelved without proper investigations and suspects are not always being relentlessly tracked down.’

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Brian Paddick, a former senior police officer, said: ‘It is totally unacceptable that police officers, who are doing more than anyone can reasonably expect of them, are being forced to downgrade “life at risk” calls.

‘How long before someone dies because there is no police officer to respond? The police are not doing enough to keep us safe from some of the most dangerous criminals. Hundreds of killers and rapists are not being kept under control. These people should not be on our streets.’

Lucy Hastings, of the charity Victim Support, said victims were being let down.

Overall, one force was judged to be outstanding, 28 were good, 13 required improvement and one was rated inadequate. Michael Barton, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman for crime operations, said it was disappointing that HMIC had concerns that some forces were falling short.

He blamed budget reductions and the loss of thousands of officers and staff, adding: ‘It’s a simple reality that we are required to prioritise more.’

Steve White of the Police Federation, which represents rank-andfile officers, said: ‘What we are seeing is a service that is only being driven by cost constraints and some areas of policing are on the critical list and heading towards intensive care.’