POLICE WHO GIVE UP ON HALF OF CRIMES

EXCLUSIVE: Mail investigation reveals thousands of offences ‘screened out’

POLICE forces are routinely failing to investigate up to half of reported crimes.

Figures released yesterday reveal that thousands of cases are dropped – sometimes in 24 hours – if an arrest is unlikely. A chief constable admitted that the chance of one of his officers investigating a bicycle or shed theft was ‘almost non-existent’ without witnesses or CCtV. ian hopkins, who heads Greater Manchester Police, said these crimes were abandoned ‘really quickly’.

his force either ‘screens out’ 43 per cent of alleged offences or solves them fast. And a survey by the Daily Mail found that other forces did the same. Wiltshire Police screen out more than 56 per cent of alleged offences within 24 hours. Bedfordshire Police gave a figure of 43 per cent.

For crimes such as bike thefts and muggings the rate can reach 80 per cent. Police chiefs insisted that funding cuts meant they had