‘Cuts are no excuse for failing to investigate’

Police must stop using lack of resources as a reason for not attending low-level crimes, says Tory peer

POLICE should stop using a lack of resources as an excuse for failing to attend “low level crimes”, the Victims’ Commissioner has said.

An increasing number of offences are now dealt with by email or telephone and last year the Metropolitan Police announced a new policy resulting in thousands of relatively minor crimes only being investigated if a suspect has been identified.

The shift in policy has been blamed on cuts in police budgets, with chief officers arguing that they need to concentrate dwindling resources in order to tackle terrorism, cybercrime and historic child sex offences.

But Baroness Helen Newlove, who was appointed by the Government to speak up for the victims of crime, said people whose homes had been vandalised or burgled were just as deserving of attention as those reporting more serious offences. While she acknowledged there would always be priorities in policing, she said the shift towards dealing with crimes via phone or email was damaging confidence in the service.

The Conservative peer – whose husband Garry was kicked to death by a group of youths outside their Warrington home in 2007 – told The Daily Telegraph: “It is not always about money, and constantly talking about the lack of resources is the wrong sort of rhetoric for the victims of crime to be hearing from the police.

“Victims want to feel supported, especially by those who are there to protect them. Getting an email or a phone call is not the same as a face-to-face response. It is not just about getting a crime number.”

She said victims were often so sympathetic to the police over the financial pressures they faced, that they were reluctant to report minor offences for fear of adding to their burden.

“I do not look at the crime, I look at the victim and what I hear from many people whose homes have been broken into, or whose lives are being blighted by anti-social behaviour, is ‘oh the police don’t have the resources to deal with this kind of thing’.

“If you have a burglary victim then they have a huge amount to deal with from tidying up the mess and dealing with insurance as well as having to cope with the trauma and the fear. They should not have to deal with the police via email or telephone.

“It is as if they are making the excuses for the police, but it isn’t all about money. There was money years ago but they still didn’t come. Garry’s case started off with criminal damage and he ended up losing his life.”

She added: “What message does it send when they are constantly told that the police won’t come out to cases of vandalism and criminal damage?”

Baroness Newlove warned that ignoring so-called “low level” crimes was allowing anti-social behaviour to “fester” in communities and this was inevitably resulting in more serious offending.

The mother-of-three said anti-social behaviour had not gone away over the past decade and still needs police focus. She said: “I get very frustrated when I hear anti-social behaviour described as low level. It is not low level, it is impactive, mentally and physically. You have people who are terrified in their own homes and neighbourhoods and that is not acceptable.

“It doesn’t go away because you put up some CCTV. I am passionate about neighbourhood policing. Having that one-to-one contact is so important.”