DIY detectives
Victims resort to social media to solve crimes as slow police response times get even worse
VICTIMS of crime facing inaction and longer waits from police are resorting to solving cases themselves – including a woman who was threatened with a crowbar when she tracked her stolen car.
Officers are now 28 per cent slower in attending the most serious emergencies compared with data from six years ago, figures from 22 police forces suggest.
And police are taking an average of three minutes longer to attend serious offences, a BBC investigation found.
Michelle Almond was confronted by a man wielding a crowbar when she tracked down her car.
The community care assistant, who relies on the vehicle for her job, felt forced to turn to social media after spending days ringing police without a response following her reporting the theft.
A Facebook user responded to her post, saying they had seen the car being driven by joyriders around a nearby estate and it had been recorded on their CCTV.
Miss Almond found her car parked in front of a house, but when she told Greater Manchester Police they failed to send any officers. She tracked
‘I turned to Facebook ’
the car again the following night but the force still failed to act.
‘Every single night we would see my car, I was giving them all the information, and they would just do nothing,’ she told the BBC. On the fourth night, she found the car on the move and followed it in her daughter’s car down a dead end.
A man got out wielding a crow bar and Miss Almond reversed away. The next day, to her fury, the vehicle was found abandoned with its windows smashed in.
‘It’s just a car but obviously that car is our livelihood, it’s your income,’ she said.
‘We did our own detective work and still didn’t get any help,’ she added.
‘Facebook solved my crime, not the police.’
A spokesman from Greater Manchester Police said: ‘We always strive to place victim care at the heart of everything we do and we apologise to any victims of crime who feel that they have not received the standard of service they rightly deserve from GMP.
‘Whenever we fall short of expectations it is important it is reported so we can take appropriate action.’
The BBC investigation also uncovered the cases of a disabled man who said police inaction led to him being targeted by a gang of violent thieves and a mother who reported a man assaulting her 12-year-old son having to wait a week for officers to investigate.
The detectives then accidentally wiped CCTV footage that might have helped the investigation, the mother added.
Recorded crimes that lead to a charge or summons to court have been falling each year for the seven years up to March 2021, the BBC found.
Police are up to 44 per cent slower to arrive at incidents than in 2013, according to responses from 19 forces.
Diana Fawcett, of charity Victim Support, said: ‘The combined effect of slow response times and the failure to charge suspects threatens to seriously undermine victims’ trust and confidence in the police.’