Met chief: Let’s tackle violence before hate crime
BRITAIN’S top police officer yesterday backed calls to prioritise tackling violence and burglaries over misogyny.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said her officers were “very busy… very stretched”.
Earlier this week Sara Thornton, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, urged officers to focus on violent crime and burglars before recording non-crime incidents, such as misogyny or wolf-whistling.
Officer numbers across England and Wales have fallen by 20,000 since 2010 while crime in recent years has surged.
Police call handlers are increasingly having to choose which crimes they can respond to.
With Britain in the midst of a violent crime epidemic, Commissioner Dick said yesterday: “My officers are very busy, they are very stretched.
“We have young people in London subject to stabbings and other serious violence, getting involved in drug gangs and things, lots of priorities.
“We can’t go on increasing the scale of the mission through enforcing new laws unless we are given more resources or the public are prepared for us to just do some things not as well.
“We undoubtedly have a huge impact from drug-related crime.
“We are not in a good position here. We have supply up, clear signs the production of cocaine is up, the purity is up, the price of the drug has come down, addictions are up, deaths are up.
“This is not a good place to be and it is being played out in violence between drugs gangs on the streets of our cities and towns across the country, not just in the big cities.”
And the Met boss repeated her summer criticism of the middle classes for fuelling a “considerable part” of the cocaine market.
She said: “I simply think they need to think about the misery at every step of the chain that gets them their drugs after dinner. It is a social recreational habit for some people, and they don’t think about the impact it has.”
Crimes against the elderly and women are among those being considered as potential new hate crimes.
But Ms Dick called for a “common sense” Sara Thornton called for focus on violent crime approach. Using the example of a 16-year-old girl being wolf-whistled by builders, she said: “I would not expect my officers to record that. “However, if one of the girls complained to a neighbourhood officer, I would expect the neighbourhood officer to go across to the site manager and say ‘You know, those girls aren’t enjoying this’.” Police chiefs have warned of increasingly complex investigations, with technology bringing a whole new raft of crimes. And Commissioner Dick warned the number of people looking at child porn has soared. She said: “As professionals, we have to work out what is the best way to deal with the most serious things. Another area that has grown hugely is viewing indecent images of children. “We must do more about the people who are making the images, who are making that happen, who are live streaming and that kind of thing. We cannot attack all problems from all angles.” CC Thornton told her organisation’s annual conference that police are unable to take on all “desirable and deserving” issues because of the drain in resources. Earlier this year Commissioner Dick described the Government’s failure to implement the independent pay body review’s recommended 3 per cent rise as a “punch on the nose”.