Watchdog warns of ‘national crisis’ in police service across Britain

POLICING in Britain is in a “potentially perilous” state with tens of thousands of suspected criminals roaming free, a damning report has found.

The policing watchdog has issued an unprecedented warning about the shortage of detectives and investigators, saying it amounted to a “national crisis”.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said victims are being let down and criminal cases shelved without proper investigation, as police fail to carry out basic functions.

Nearly 46,000 wanted suspects are on the police database, including those being sought for murder, rape and terror offences, according to the latest figures from August last year.

Inspectors found evidence of some emergency calls being downgraded in order to justify a slower response and failings in responding to vulnerable victims. Fewer arrests were made, a large number of crimes were effectively “written off ”, suspects were not always pursued and inexperienced officers were left to carry out complex investigations, the review found.

Zoe Billingham, HM Inspector, said: “We are leading to a very serious conclusion regarding the potentially perilous state of British policing in this report. Over the last few years, HMIC has said consistently that police forces were managing well in increasingly difficult circumstances.”

She said she was raising “a red flag” over the consequences of “an unconscious form of rationing of police services”. The wide-ranging report found a lack of focus directed to apprehending wanted individuals, with the details of 67,000 suspects not placed on the police national computer (PNC).

In too many cases “insufficient action” was taken to actively track down wanted suspects once their details had been circulated on the PNC, inspectors said. They also said that neighbourhood policing, described as “the bedrock” of the service, continues to be eroded.

HMIC said it was warning for the first time of a national crisis in the shortage of detectives and investigators in many forces. Steve White, chairman of the Po- lice Federation of England and Wales, said the report must act as a “wake-up call”. He 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.”

The watchdog examined the effectiveness of forces in England and Wales, and said that most provided a largely good service in keeping people safe and preventing crime.

Overall, one force was judged to be “outstanding”, 28 forces were “good”, 13 “require improvement” and one was rated “inadequate”. Brandon Lewis, the policing minister, said: “A number of forces clearly still have more work to do to ensure they are providing the level of service which communities expect and deserve.”

‘Some areas of policing are on the critical list and heading towards intensive care’