Victims losing faith in police as many fail to report crimes

VICTIMS are losing faith in the police and criminal justice system as a record one in five decide not to report crimes because they feel officers “would not have bothered”, the Victims’ Commissioner has warned.

In her first in-depth investigation into victims’ experiences, Dame Vera Baird said the criminal justice system was at a tipping point where there was a risk the public would “withdraw support” from the police and the courts.

“A failure to listen to these statements of concern will be a missed opportunity,” she said. “Poor experiences will diminish the number of people willing to help the police and support cases to court.”

Dame Vera’s research showed more than a third of victims (34.5 per cent) were dissatisfied with the action the police took, and over half (52.2 per cent) did not think the police kept them well informed about their case’s progress, up from 43.5 per cent four years earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) crime survey data.

However, the most worrying data, Dame Vera said, was the growing proportion saying police were not told about a crime because victims “didn’t think they would have bothered or been interested”. The ONS data showed it had risen from 16.6 per cent in 201415 to 20.2 per cent in 2018-19.

A further 32.2 per cent said they did not report a problem or crime because they believed the police could have done nothing about it, up from a quarter (24.6 per cent) in 2014-15.

The most common reason that victims gave for their dissatisfaction with the service they received was the police lack of action over a crime they had reported. The proportion rose by half in three years from 24.6 per cent in 2016-17 to 38.4 per cent in 2018-19.

Dame Vera said the victims’ code was designed to ensure law enforcement took account of their needs, yet the study showed four out of five had never heard of it. At the same time, it was “unwieldy” and “impenetrable”.

“Until recently, there has been little attempt to monitor compliance with the code,” she said. “With victims unaware of their entitlements, the agencies required to deliver them have not been held to account.

“This research makes clear that they are not doing as they should and the risk is that the public starts to withdraw support from police and courts.”

A legally-enforced code is planned by the Government, which, Dame Vera said, should “indicate the gravity of not complying”.