Let suspects go, we’ve no one to arrest them

Public increasingly told not to detain alleged criminals because of cuts to forces, says senior officer

PEOPLE who catch criminals are being told to let them go because forces have insufficient officers to come and arrest them, a police chief has admitted.

Louisa Rolfe, West Midlands deputy chief constable, said although it was “not right” that people were being told they had to release suspects they were holding, she had repeatedly heard it was “because we have no one to send”.

It comes as police chiefs warned they may have to cut another 10,000 officers by 2020 to fund a £420million pension shortfall the Treasury wants forces to cover. This week the home affairs committee warned that policing was at risk of becoming “irrelevant” because many crimes are not even investigated.

In an internal message to staff, Ms Rolfe said: “Only three in 10 high risk P2 logs [high-priority incidents below the level of emergency] are being reached within the target time. Our dispatchers are spending too much time ascertaining what every unit is doing and then justifying delays.

“This is inefficient and I’ve heard too many stories of the public being told to ‘let go’ an offender they’ve caught because we have no one to send. In an organisation of more than 10,000 people, more than 6,000 of whom are officers, this cannot be right.”

In an online blog, Performance: We Could Do Better, she wrote: “While the media is sympathetic to our challenge of a shrinking budget and fewer staff, with yet more crime to deal with, too often we are not making best use of what we have. Despite all these challenges, our performance could be much better.”

David Thompson, West Midlands chief constable, has been one of the most outspoken critics of officer reductions, saying there could be “more obvious rationing of services” as a result of any further cuts to pay for his force’s £22.5 million pension shortfall.

He has already said officers are not pursuing crimes where they could find a suspect.

In a blog for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, he said police were at a “tipping point” where core aspects of policing, such as answering calls, investigating crime and bringing offenders to justice, were being “pushed beyond sustainability” and were in danger of becoming ineffective.

This week, Sara Thornton, the council’s chairman, and Mark Burns-williamson, head of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, issued a joint warning that if forces had to pick up the full £420 million pension bill next year “it could mean the loss of up to 10,000 officers from an already badly overstretched service at a time of increasing crime and serious threats”. The number of front-line officers has fallen by 20,000 since 2010.

David Jamieson, West Midlands police and crime commissioner, said the force was investing in technology to ensure “officers spend more time catching criminals”. The Home Office said it was working closely with forces to mitigate the impact of the pension shortfall on front-line officers.