Solving crimes has to be top police priority, says Cleverly

POLICE chiefs have been ordered to prioritise solving more crimes this year in an effort to restore public confidence after the collapse in charging rates.

The demand was made by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, as he chaired his first meeting of the National Policing Board, and policing minister Chris Philp who said the rates for solving crimes were “far too low” and inconsistent between forces.

“Solving more crimes has to be a focus this year,” said Mr Philp. Charging rates have fallen from 15.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent since 2016.

Mr Cleverly told police chiefs the public felt more visible crimes like shoplifting and theft were being missed. “Restoring confidence in ‘core policing’ and police response to crime was made clear as a priority,” said a Home Office source.

Meanwhile, police are increasingly using video footage and evidence supplied by road users to prosecute motorists for bad driving, according to the AA.

It has contributed to a 25 per cent rise in fixed penalty notices or prosecutions of motorists in the past two years from 2.37 million to 2.95 million in 2022. The biggest increase was in the number of motorists caught speeding which rose from just over two million to 2.5million offences in two years.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, said: “With the rise of dashcams and riders wearing cameras, drivers behaving badly should beware that someone is always watching. Police forces are utilising the footage to hold drivers to account and using the film as evidence to prosecute offenders.

There was a 30 per cent increase last year in the number of videos of dangerous driving submitted to the police by the public to 33,500 via the national dashcam safety portal. About 70 per cent of the submissions lead to police action.

A portal for uploading videos was launched in 2018 by the dashcam firm Nextbase, helping turn drivers into DIY law enforcers. Also known widely as Operation Snap, the system is used by most police forces in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are considering implementing the system, but are yet to do so.

Also tougher laws on using mobile phones behind the wheel saw the number of drivers prosecuted rise by 93 per cent.