SOLVE YOUR OWN CRIMES
Theft victims should look for loot on eBay instead of calling police, claims sergeant
THEFT victims could soon be told to carry out their own criminal investigations by struggling police forces, a frontline officer has warned.
Sergeant Simon Kempton, of Dorset Police, said neighbourhood policing had been ‘decimated’ by cuts.
Forces no longer have the staff or technology to investigate everyday crime, he warned.
Speaking at a cyber- security conference in London, he said police were ‘getting to the point of almost asking people to do their own investigations’.
Sergeant Kempton, who is also a national Police Federation representative, suggested that instead of calling police, victims of theft should scour websites such as eBay and Gumtree in search of their stolen possessions.
He warned that police forces across England at Wales were at serious risk of becoming ‘purely reactive’ to the amateur detective work of crime victims.
He said: ‘I’m also concerned about our use of technology. Criminals are in a far stronger position than we are.
‘Their tech is better than the tech we use to stop them. We are lagging behind with creaking, archaic systems.
‘In the past, someone would steal a mountain bike and end up selling it at the local pub.
‘Now, within literally minutes, it’s up for sale on online platforms. Police are getting to the point of almost asking people to do their own investigations to see if they can find their bike for sale online. That is something we should be able to do. The reason we can’t do that is based purely on resources.’ His remarks at the event, which was hosted by Gumtree, come amid the growing Wild West UK crime wave.
In June, official figures revealed that violent crime was on the up in 42 of 43 police force areas in England and Wales – in some by more than 50 per cent.
Yet in some areas, the rate at which criminals are brought to justice has plummeted.
Last year, just one in ten knife robberies and fewer than a quarter of violent crimes were solved by the Met Police.
Police numbers have fallen by 21,000 since 2010 as forces are hit by punishing budget cuts.
Dwindling resources mean many victims of crime are being told that police are effectively powerless to help them.
In one example, housewife Sharron Jenson, 44, was told to carry out her own investigation after her £700 bike was taken.
When she saw it for sale on Gumtree five days after it was stolen from Kingston High Street in south-west London she went to police. But they told her to contact the seller herself posing as a buyer. Terrified, she was forced into a direct confrontation with the thief, but managed to steal the bike back while taking it for a test ride.
She contacted police after her ordeal, providing the thief ’s name, the address he sold from, description and phone number – but she said officers told her ‘it was my word against his’.