Police simply giving up on 4 out of 5 burglaries
Even rapes are being written off as suspects can’t be traced
HUNDREDS of thousands of recorded crimes are never solved by police because they cannot identify a culprit, figures reveal.
It means huge numbers of criminals – including rapists, thugs, burglars and thieves – have escaped justice and are free on the streets.
In 57 per cent of robberies and around 14 per cent of both violent offences and sexual attacks, a perpetrator was never identified.
Four out of five burglaries, threequarters of vehicle thefts and half of shoplifting cases were closed without a suspect ever being established. For some offences such as criminal damage, arson and theft, as many as seven out of ten investigations were shut without anyone being caught, according to Home Office data.
In total, of 4.6million crimes assigned an outcome in England and Wales in the year to March, an alarming 47.5 per cent were written off as ‘no suspect identified’ – allowing 2.3million offenders to escape scot-free.
Police charged a suspect in just one in every ten reported crimes – half the level of five years ago.
Critics said the statistics, which come amid spiralling violent crime in ‘Wild West Britain’ as highlighted by the Daily Mail, gave criminals a ‘green light’ to offend.
The revelations will further harm faith in the police at a time when officers are under fire for failing to attend the scene of many crimes.
In some instances, victims can expect little or no investigation or a visit from an officer unless they can supply evidence or name a suspect – meaning thousands of criminals can act with impunity.
Police chiefs have warned forces are struggling to cope following deep cuts to funding. Since 2009, the number of police and PCSOs has plunged from 160,000 to 132,000.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons’ home affairs select committee, said: ‘Too many investigations are closing without suspects being identified and we are hearing increasing reports of the police being too overstretched to investigate. Police forces are under immense pressure with rising serious and violent crime alongside cuts in the numbers of officers and PCSOs.
‘Failing to identify suspects gives criminals a green light to reoffend.’
Former Home Office adviser David Green, of the Civitas thinkevery tank, said: ‘ The Government claims that it has increased funding of police forces so that they can perform their duties.
‘But if we compare the number of police officers with the number of recorded crimes they had to deal with, their claim collapses.
‘In 2010 there were 29 crimes for police officer. Because the number of officers has fallen dramatically, each officer now has 39 crimes to deal with. It’s no wonder the criminals are winning.’
The Home Office published the outcomes of criminal investigations carried out by all 43 of England and Wales’s forces and the British Transport Police.
The figures show that 81,788 of the 106,334 car thefts recorded by police – 75 per cent – ended up being logged as ‘investigation complete, no suspect identified”
Around 81 per cent of the 249,235 house break-ins recorded during 2017-18 were closed without a culprit being established. And about 50 per cent of the 382,100 shoplifting offences were unsolved.
In July, the Office for National Statistics revealed that police recorded 5.5million offences in the year to March, a rise of 45 per cent compared with 2015.
Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said increased demand and fewer officer numbers had led to forces prioritising cases with a realistic prospect of prosecution. ‘Police focus on targeting prolific offenders, organised crime networks and ensuring prevention measures by homeowners and businesses are in place,’ she said.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We expect the police to take all reports of crime seriously, to investigate and to bring the offenders to court.
‘We have provided a strong and comprehensive £13billion funding settlement to ensure the police have the resources they need to carry out their vital work.’
‘The criminals are winning’
HAVE the police all but abandoned their most basic duty: to investigate crime and bring offenders to justice? Day by day, in countless stories reported by this newspaper, the evidence for this disturbing proposition mounts.
Take just one, on Page 16. When a £750 bracelet was stolen from his jewellery shop, John Easom quite reasonably expected the police to investigate. He gathered the CCTV footage, reported the crime and then waited weeks for officers to respond.
Forced to turn detective, he uploaded the footage to social media and was rewarded when members of the public came forward with the names of the suspects. But even after he had solved the case himself, Nottinghamshire Police did nothing.
As new figures show, hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Britons share his miserable experience of the criminal justice system. In three- quarters of all vehicle thefts, four out of five burglaries and almost half of shoplifting cases, officers closed the investigation without even identifying a suspect. If the alarm bells aren’t already ringing at the Home Office, they certainly should be.
Yes, budgets have been cut, but for too many chief constables this has become a convenient excuse. Their failings, and risibly soft sentencing, tell serial offenders they can act with impunity. So is it any wonder crime is rising in Wild West Britain?