Police forced to scrap 923,000 cases despite having likely suspect
ALMOST one in five police investigations collapsed last year despite a suspect being identified.
The number of cases closed early, even with a possible offender, has soared to 923,229 in the last year, prompting fears that a shortage of officers and detectives is leading to criminals going unpunished.
Home Office figures show that in the year to March 2015, just 6.9 per cent of investigations were closed because of “evidential difficulties” after a suspect was identified. This rose to one in 10 crimes in 2016, 12.8 per cent in 2017, 15.4 in 2018 and 17.8 per cent in March this year.
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims Rights Campaign, told the Daily Express: “Investigations are collapsing primarily because there are not enough officers to properly investigate the range of crimes.
“In addition, many victims and witnesses are pulling out because they fear intimidation from perpetrators and they know the police can’t be relied upon to protect them.”Analysis of Home Office figures revealed 1,170,467 investigations were closed in the 12 months to this March because of a lack of evidence and support from the victim. Of these, police identified a suspect in 923,229 cases but closed the probe.
Cases closed early included 728,941 of violence, 62,058 sexual offences and 16,036 robberies.
This comes after the number of suspects prosecuted plunged last year.
Just 403,221 people were hauled before judges in the year to March, less than eight per cent of the 5.1 million crimes recorded in the same period. New figures also revealed rape victims have just a one in 70 chance of seeing their attacker face justice. Just 528 of the 38,500 cases resulted in a suspect being charged.
Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, said: “Men who rape are likely to carry on unless they are stopped. So confidence to support a prosecution is vital for public safety.”
And four in five paedophiles caught downloading child sex abuse images last year were spared jail. Just 562 out of 2,967 were put behind bars. David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, accused the Ministry of Justice of going soft on such criminals, saying they should “end up where they belong, in a prison”.
Faced with a 5,000 national shortfall in detectives, the Home Office confirmed new plans to recruit 20,000 officers. A spokesperson said police funding was increasing by £1billion this year. “This is helping forces fill key gaps including detectives and police, and crime commissioners have committed to recruit over 3,700 additional officers and staff this year.”