PLUS: OFFICERS WARN CRIMINALS ARE THRIVING IN WAKE OF POLICE CUTS
OFFICERS SAY: ‘THERE AREN’T ENOUGH OF US TO KEEP UP WITH OFFENCES’
CRIME is rising in the region as crooks ‘take advantage’ of policing cuts, senior officers and fed-up victims have told the M.E.N.
Home Office figures show that crime rose by 31 per cent – an additional 70,000 crimes – in the year up to June 2017.
The statistic represents a crime report every two minutes.
Violent crime alone has risen 46pc – an increase which prompted one senior officer to tell us serious criminals are ‘operating with seeming impunity.’
Meanwhile burglary victims are turning detective to try and retrieve valuables because they have no faith in over-stretched officers’ ability to catch thieves.
Greater Manchester Police has 2,000 fewer officers than it did in 2010 – and is compelled by events to focus on the fight against terrorism and the huge rise in reports of historic sexual abuse.
At the same time the force must police party conferences, attend protests and continue to investigate the Manchester Arena bombing.
In the wake of the terror attack, Chief Constable Ian Hopkins described police numbers as at the ‘lower end of reasonable.’
Meanwhile, his second-in-command, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling, has said in a response to the latest Home Office figures that the cuts have meant it is ‘inevitable’ that police ‘cannot deal with everything’ – despite officers ‘working around the clock.’
Speaking under condition of anonymity another senior officer put it bluntly, saying: “We just can’t keep up,” as the latest Home Office figures revealed that 294,581 crimes were recorded in Greater Manchester in the year to June, 2017, a rise of 31pc (or 69,430 more crimes) compared to the year before.
Burglary is up by 14pc – as the Police Federation describe how dealing with acquisitive crime has become a ‘lesser priority.’
Keeley Pritchard, 27, was a victim of one of 32,000 burglaries reported in Greater Manchester last year.
Thieves ransacked her flat in Bradley Avenue in Lower Kersal, Salford, taking a wall-mounted TV, a sound system, a mountain bike, a jet washer, jewellery, lampshades, a rug, kitchen knives, 20 pairs of branded trainers and a games console.
More devastating for Keeley, who has two children aged 12 and 16, was that the crime happened just 12 months after the death of her mother and three years after the death of her brother.
Friends of the family believe the thieves are from the community – and have exploited a reduced police presence in their neighbourhood.
“Everybody who knows that family knows what they have been going through – all their troubles”, one local said.
“The people who did this are absolutely disgusting low-life scum who have taken advantage.”
Keeley posted about her experience on Facebook, lacking confidence that the police would catch the culprits and hoping she would be able to retrieve her valuables that way – but she hasn’t had them back.
The family friend added: “People round there are too scared to open their mouths. The criminals run the place, basically.”
Another victim of burglary, David Gillan, 43, took matters into his own hands when his home in Sale was broken into in July – a paving slab was thrown through his front door as his young family slept, and then thieves took the keys to his wife’s £15,000 Ford Fiesta and drove off in it.
A police officer turned up at his house two hours later and, although pleasant, professional and reassuring, said there would be little point in any forensic examination as the burglars had touched very little and were probably gloved.
The officer promised he would ‘keep an eye out’ for the Fiesta.
David, a father-of-two who works in medical sales, posted details of the theft, including the make and registration of the stolen car on the Sale M33 Facebook group.
It was spotted, abandoned but otherwise undamaged, in Sale Moor. When David informed police they urged him simply to pick it up rather than have officers seize it so it could be forensically examined.
“It’ll cost you £120 if we seize it,” police told David, explaining that this would be the minimum he would have to pay get it released by a private contractor after they had finished with it.
We just can’t keep up. There just aren’t enough cops. And the criminals know that GMP officer
As he had shelled out around £800 to fix his front door, change locks and for pay for his insurance excess, he decided to simply retrieve the car himself and return it to his wife.
David said: “I don’t think there was an awful lot more the police could have done given all their cutbacks. The police officer even said it was ridiculous that they do this to victims of crime but that’s what it is at the moment. I feel for them.”
The Home Office figures, released on Thursday, show 294,581 crimes were recorded in Greater Manchester in the year to June 2017 – and the last time recorded crime was seen at such a level was in 2008.
Back then GMP had more of a chance of doing something about it as the force had around 8,000 police officers, compared to about 6,000 today.
The Home Office records go back to 2003 when there were 379,126 crimes, the highest recorded to date. The figures fell dramatically, in the years since, but as way crimes are recorded has changed it’s near impossible to compare one year with another with great accuracy.
Back in 2008, investment in policing was rising and it was a matter of routine for police to make sure known criminals were behaving, with unannounced visits to their homes.
But even when austerity heralded wide-scale public services cuts from 2010 the recorded crime figures continued to fall to a low of around 178,000 offences, encouraging yet further cuts. Since then recorded crime has been rising at an alarming rate. Virtually all types of crime are rising – although violence against the person increased the most, with 76,404 such crimes last year, a rise of 46pc.
Sex crimes have risen 31pc, to 7,663 reported offences last year. Burglary rose 14pc to 32,173 offences while robbery soared by 53pc (5,401 offences).
Confronted with the figures, one GMP officer admitted: “We just can’t keep up. There just aren’t enough cops. We tend to concentrate our efforts on the same people and the same areas. It means that when there is a burglary and Middle England needs us they don’t get a proper service. And the criminals know that. When austerity started there was a lag before the effect started to be felt. A lot of people had been locked up and were in prison and the criminals who were out didn’t realise there was a lack of cops. Then all of a sudden they realise. And those people come out of prison and – bang – crime goes up.”
It’s a view echoed by Ian Hanson chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers.
He told us: “Because we have seen so many police officers removed from the streets and we are having to spread our resources much more thinly, we are now in the situation where criminals are capitalising on opportunities which perhaps weren’t there before.”
Speaking for the force, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said the ‘vast majority’ of the increase in reported crimes is taken up by ‘minor offences,’ and that they have changed recording methods.
He added:“We also believe that victims of sexual offences and other serious crimes are now more confident in coming forward, knowing that we will take them seriously and do everything we can to support them. This also results in extra crimes being recorded.”
Meanwhile, Beverley Hughes, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester said the force desperately needed more money.
“We know that Greater Manchester is a challenging area to police, and these figures reflect the need for the government to provide us with the resources and investment we need to be able to meet these challenges head on”, she said.