No such thing as a minor crime, Philp tells officers

THERE is no such thing as a minor crime, Chris Philp, the policing minister, has said as he demanded officers take a “zero tolerance” approach.

In an article for The Telegraph, Mr Philp said he wanted a “significant increase” in the number of criminals caught and prosecuted to reverse charging rates that were “still too low”.

This required officers pursuing “all reasonable lines of enquiry” for all types of crime whether anti-social behaviour, theft or vandalism.

“This means that the minimum the public can expect is that, where there is tangible evidence, such as CCTV footage or victims’ stolen goods appearing on a website, the police should be taking full advantage to identify suspects, track down stolen goods and bring more offenders to justice,” he said.

The proportion of crimes resulting in charges has dropped from 15.5 per cent in the year ending March 2015 to 5.5 per cent in the year ending March 2022, as police stand accused of screening out low-level crimes and neighbourhood policing has been slashed.

Andy Cooke, HM chief inspector of constabulary, warned that the failure to stop thieves and burglars threatens the police’s “bond of trust” with the public.

“There is no such thing as a minor crime. Anti-social behaviour, theft and vandalism all create environments where more serious crimes can flourish. Victims should not be left feeling violated and unsafe in their own communities,” said Mr Philp.

“I want to see zero tolerance towards all crime from the police and a back-tobasics approach that significantly increases the number of criminals caught and prosecuted.”

With an extra 20,000 police officers recruited and funding increase to £843million in April, Mr Philp said he expected “a significant increase in the number of criminals caught and crimes being solved”.

He also urged forces to double the number of searches of CCTV images of suspects against police databases, using retrospective facial recognition. The target would be to increase it to 200,000 by the summer.

Mr Philp said hotspot policing to counter anti-social behaviour will be rolled out to all 43 forces in England and Wales by April after it was found to reduce crime by more than a fifth.

The tactic, where officers target locations plagued by anti-social behaviour, has been tested in 10 forces, and has cut incidents of such behaviour by up to a half and also reduced overall crime by as much as 24 per cent.