Now you’ve no excuse not to cut crime, Priti tells police
PRITI Patel yesterday ordered police chiefs to cut crime, saying they will have ‘no excuses’ after forces get 20,000 more officers.
The Home Secretary delivered a blunt message to chief constables, saying she was unafraid to challenge them and warning that stemming the surge in violent crime and killings was ‘non-negotiable’.
Speaking at the annual summit for the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners in London, Mrs Patel signalled a return to police targets with the chiefs measured by ‘outcomes’. She said: ‘ In three years, when the 20,000 officers are through the door, people must see a difference.
‘Less crime. Safer streets. No excuses. The public won’t accept them and neither should we.’ She demanded reductions in murder rates, serious violence, neighbourhood crime, county lines and domestic abuse, announcing that a newly created Crime and Policing Performance Board would assess their progress.
Mrs Patel said it was an ‘ambitious list’, adding: ‘We need to deliver the decline in crime that people want.
‘These outcomes will be nonnegotiable and I will be unapologetic about holding you to account.’ She spoke out as some police chiefs questioned how they could free up officers to cut crime when they were so busy dealing with missing people, mental health and neighbourhood issues.
Dave Thompson, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said: ‘We are close to emptying the bins in some cases because of the lack of capacity in neighbourhood services’.
He said his officers were swamped by reports of missing people, adding that there are ‘more missing people than burglaries in Birmingham’.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, of Greater Manchester Police, said more than a quarter of his officers’ time was taken up with dealing with mental health and missing people.
Mrs Patel acknowledged that police had been ‘overstretched’, saying it was unacceptable that the public no longer see bobbies on the beat.
In a thinly disguised dig at Theresa May, who cut officer numbers as home secretary and then prime minister, Mrs Patel said: ‘Officers have become over-stretched.
‘People no longer saw police on the streets. In 2018/19 only 16 per cent said that bobbies on the beat were highly visible in their area – less than half the figure in 2009/10.
‘Almost half said they had never seen a foot patrol in their area. Not once.’
Pointing to figures showing that the number of recorded offences resulting in a charge
‘Safer streets. No excuses’
had halved to less than 8 per cent since 2014/15, the Home Secretary said the public had ‘ rumbled’ the failure of the police to investigate mass crimes such as burglaries.
In response, she announced a £41.5million funding boost for 18 forces in areas of the country blighted by serious violence. Mrs Patel also launched a consultation on a Police Covenant to provide physical protection, wellbeing and support for police officers and their families.
Yesterday Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, said: ‘It must feel better in three years’ time for the public. If it did not, I think I would have failed in my bit of that.’