Now ANOTHER police force gives up solving minor crimes
A POLICE force was accused of concealing cutbacks yesterday by trying to solve cases over the telephone and online.
Officers in Sussex say their ‘ investigations and resolution centre’ frees up manpower to deal with major offences.
Staff have been saved from attending 42,000 minor incidents in 12 months.
Chief Constable Giles York says this ‘smarter approach’ will help ‘achieve the best outcomes for victims’. But campaigners insist the force is ‘simply dressing up the fact they can’t do their job properly because of cutbacks’.
In a statement on Facebook, Sussex Police said: ‘We won’t rule out investigating any crime type but assess every reported crime individually to get the best outcomes where the greatest harm has been caused. Following this assessment our teams investigate crimes professionally and efficiently.’
But victims and witnesses will have to wait three days for a response to an email – ‘depending on demand’.
One resident challenged the force to publish its criteria for a crime worthy of investigation. Steven Betteridge wrote on Facebook: ‘ Of course you won’t, quite right, because it would say to wrongdoers, there are some things we’re simply going to let you get away with.
‘Sorry, this is justification for not investigating low-level crime.’
Last month the Metropolitan Police also admitted that tens of thousands of crimes would no longer be investigated.
The force said cases worth less than £50, or where there is no CCTV, would not be probed unless a suspect is identified.