Cash-strapped Met won’t investigate all shoplifting, car crime and vandalism
POLICE will no longer investigate tens of thousands of shoplifting, car crime or vandalism offences, Scotland Yard has said. A senior officer said budget cuts meant it was “not practical” to investigate many crimes.
The Metropolitan Police said new guidelines for officers would help them “determine very quickly if it is proportionate” to investigate “lower level, higher volume offences” further.
Reports suggested the new policy could mean 150,000 fewer offences will be investigated every year as the Met Police tries to save £400million.
The announcement came as Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, told MPS there are “no plans for further cuts” to the police budget amid Tory concerns that officers are overstretched.
Dep Asst Commissioner Mark Simmons said the Met’s new crime assessment policy would prioritise the crimes to investigate as the force worked with fewer officers and less money. He said: “Clearly this is not about letting criminals get away with crime, or not investigating the cases we are solving at the moment, if we thought it was, we simply would not do this.
“With the pressure on our resources it is not practical for our officers to spend a considerable amount of time looking into something where for example, the value of damage or the item stolen is under £50, or the victim is not willing to support a prosecution.”
He said serious offences would continue to be investigated as before.
“Of course we are not talking about things like homicide, kidnap, sexual offences, hate crime or domestic violence, but the lower level, higher volume offences such as shoplifting, car crime and criminal damage,” he added. “This is not to say these cases will not be investigated further, however by applying the assessment policy we will be able to determine very quickly if it is proportionate to do so.”
But Mick Neville, a former Scotland Yard detective chief inspector, told The Sun the new plan gave “no consideration” to the victims of crime.
He said: “The new principles will focus police attention on easy crimes where there is a known suspect. Few professional criminals target people who know them, so the worst villains will evade justice.”
Ken Marsh, the chairm an of themetropolitan Police Federation, said: “We don’t agree with it, we think all crime should be investigated, we think the public deserve that.” But he said the police were being blamed for Government cuts, adding: “[DAC Simmons] has had this forced upon him by the Government.”
Meanwhile, Amber Rudd faced calls in the Commons to guarantee cash to forces across the country. Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, W Yorks, cited a “worrying increase” in crime in his constituency, adding: “It’s a fact that the police officers – who are doing a fantastic job – are overstretched.”