The police who won’t bother with shoplifting cases of less than £100
A POLICE force has warned it will no longer be able to afford to investigate shoplifting cases where less than £100 is stolen.
It may also stop responding to reports of car crime, and take five years to probe child sex cases.
Kathryn Holloway, the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, admitted yesterday her region could become the ‘retail theft capital of the UK’.
She said the county will become ‘an away day destination for thieves’ as police will be unable to keep people safe unless the force gets an extra £10million. She told MPs that senior officers are having to look at what they are ‘not able to do’ following budget squeezes.
The Home Affairs Select Committee heard Bedfordshire Police’s resources are so scarce officers are having to beg social workers to help them conduct interviews with victims in six major child sexual exploitation cases at children’s homes. Miss Holloway said: ‘I’ve asked local authorities to give us social workers to go out with our officers. Without them it’ll take us five years to actually interview and properly investigate.’
Other ideas being considered to save cash include ceasing to attend all vehicle thefts and ignoring low-value shop thefts.
Miss Holloway said: ‘I suppose there could be an argument that people are insured and shouldn’t be leaving valuables in cars, vans and so on. However, it’s also been suggested we wouldn’t be going to retail thefts of £100 and under.
‘I have no appetite whatsoever as PCC for Bedfordshire in seeing my county become the retail theft capital for the UK.’
She told the MPs her force was in the worst funded in Britain. Its spending has already been slashed by about a third, with another £12million of cuts on the horizon.
Her comments echo a dire warning in September by Bedfordshire Chief Constable John Boucher, who said: ‘We do not have the resources to keep residents safe. My officers can’t cope with the demand and no one seems to be listening.
‘Officers are now attending 500 extra urgent calls a month compared to 12 months ago – 20 of which are to trace children who are at risk of exploitation by gangs or paedophiles. I do not have enough officers to keep those children safe or protect vulnerable people.’
Bedfordshire is one of the smallest forces in Britain, but it covers the large town of Luton, which Miss Holloway said had a ‘footprint in
‘We can’t protect the vulnerable’
every single terror attack this summer’. The force has the worst record on burglary in the UK, solving just six per cent of cases in the past six years. Earlier this year, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary rated Bedfordshire Police the worst in the country for keeping people safe and reducing crime.
The previous Bedfordshire PCC suggested a number of controversial money-raising schemes, including putting adverts on patrol cars.
The force is just the latest to warn that lower level offences will no longer be investigated.
Scotland Yard has suggested it is ‘not practical’ for officers to spend considerable amounts of time looking at crimes such as criminal damage as it faces £400million of cuts by 2020. Yesterday London Mayor