Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

Crime is up and the service is struggling, MPs say.

Yvette Cooper chairs the Home Affairs Committee

Date - 25th October 2018
By - Hayden Smith

5 Comments

 

Policing is at risk of becoming "irrelevant" as neighbourhood presences are stripped back and vast numbers of crimes go unsolved, a major new report warns.

Forces in England and Wales are "struggling to cope" and there will be dire consequences for public safety unless they are provided with additional funding, according to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which also accused the Home Office of a "complete failure of leadership".

Its inquiry found "volume" offences including robbery and vehicle-related theft are increasing at an alarmingly steep rate.

While recorded crime is up by nearly a third in three years, charges or summonses have fallen by 26 per cent and the number of arrests is also down, according to the assessment.

It said data suggests forces have lost at least a fifth of their neighbourhood policing capacity on average since 2010.

Flagging up the role played by neighbourhood teams in tackling terrorism and gang crime, the report said: "It is absolutely vital that this cornerstone of British policing is reaffirmed throughout the country, to ensure that trust and legitimacy is maintained.

"This is particularly important in communities in which distrust of the police - and in public authorities more widely - is rife, and in which those local links are all the more important.

"Nevertheless, in all neighbourhoods, without local engagement, policing is at risk of becoming irrelevant to most people, particularly in the context of low rates of investigation for many crimes."

The wide-ranging review also found:

• Only a tiny proportion of online fraud cases are ever investigated and the police response needs a fundamental overhaul;
• Forces are "woefully under-resourced" for the volume of online child sexual abuse investigations they must carry out;
• Forces are failing to meet the challenges of the digital age, with investment in and adoption of new technology a "complete and utter mess".

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee, said: "Police officers across the country are performing a remarkable public service in increasingly difficult circumstances, but forces are badly overstretched.

"Crime is up, charges and arrests are down, and the police service is struggling to respond effectively to emerging and growing challenges, such as online fraud and online child abuse. Policing urgently needs more money."

Internet child sexual abuse is reaching "epidemic" levels, with law enforcement estimates suggesting 80,000 people may present some form of sexual threat to children online, the committee found.

Its report warned the proportion of fraud cases investigated is "shockingly low" in the context of 1.7 million offences a year, saying: "It appears highly unlikely that more than one in 200 victims ever sees their perpetrator convicted."

MPs also called for the private sector to do "much more" to reduce the demand on policing from the two crime types.

The committee concluded policing is suffering from a "complete failure of leadership" from the Home Office, saying: "As the lead department for policing, it cannot continue to stand back while crime patterns change so fast that the police struggle to respond."

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has already been clear that he will prioritise funding for the police.

"We have been on the front foot in engaging with police.

"The policing minister has spoken to leaders in every force in England and Wales to better understand the demand and changing nature of crime faced by forces.

"We are now working closely with the police to gather the evidence to ensure they continue to receive the resources they need at the next spending review."

National Police Chiefs' Council chairwoman Sara Thornton said the report "rightly recognises that forces and officers have come under 'serious strain' and concludes 'that forces are badly overstretched' as they deal with rising crime and demand that is more complex".

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[Zulu 22 + 4,569]

Does anyone believe that the Home Office or Parliament will take any notice of the report. It should not have needed a Commons Committee to state the obvious.

[mike88 + 257]

I agree with everything mentioned but why do they always focus on neighbourhood teams and online crime being affected? Every aspect of policing is in a dire condition but most of all response policing . Most forces that I know of struggle to cover 999 calls on a daily basis. Where I work the size of response teams are half what they were ten years ago and frequently parade under minimum staffing. Can’t see how anything will change anytime soon, it would take years to reverse the damage done.

[obsidian_eclipse + 1,202]

Because neighbourhood policing does affect crime in some circumstances before it escalates to requiring 999 response. Measuring the prevention of crime in itself is a very difficult thing to do. I know when I have been on foot patrol it has had an impact on 999 calls in the area which I have been policing as there is a contrast. The problem of course is it isn't efficient (at least in the modern age) to have police officers on every street corner. It doesn't always mean that crime doesn't occur as quite often it does, but I have been in a position where I'm already there and possibly dealing with it before response arrive. I know when the NPT aren't working the shoplifters in the town centre have a field day and it's not unusual to have a small 6 man response team dealing with the usual calls plus handling 12+ shoplifters, thefts, drugs and violence which are ordinarily less frequent.

Online crime however is a very complex and I'd say specialised. Just how much cyber fraud originates from the UK? Most of it I've known occurs internationally and they are like ghosts. There's only so much individual forces can mimic in that regards and it needs a more nationalised resource. There's no harm of course individual forces collecting evidence etc but investigating that to a suitable resolution is very difficult. The same is true of online paedophilia, they don't always originate locally and requires a coordinated approach which would be best suited to a national entity.

To me it seems like it's a political distraction to say the types of crimes are changing. They aren't. The tools used by criminals have changed in some areas but overall this is actually an addition to the workload rather than a replacement of it.

[Jimbo26 + 199]

5 hours ago, mike88 said:

Every aspect of policing is in a dire condition 

Not our diversity unit. Fully up to strength and carrying no vacancies. We have our priorities right.😉

[Reasonable Man + 1,230]

Not our diversity unit. Fully up to strength and carrying no vacancies. We have our priorities right.[emoji6]

I know what you’re saying but it depends on the full story. I could say the same about the force I am currently in but the Diversity Unit consisted of three Sgts each with four Constables pre austerity. As the force cut numbers the Diversity team has been cut to one Sgt and three Constables for the whole force.
The bigger team used to take on ongoing issues and investigations as well as going out to ‘hard to reach’ communities. Now with so few of them the spend most of their time giving specialist advice and the investigations fall to Neighbourhood to deal with.

[Juliet_bravo717 1]

It isn't a function that can become irrelevant, it just needs a critical mass in terms of the percentage of the population it affects before it will be so prevalent in the national conversation that it will force action or Government change.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Juliet_bravo717

[David + 4,981]

The strange thing in all of this was, I've been saying pretty much this for 5, 6, 7, 8 more years, sometimes to derision.

[Zulu 22 + 4,569]

It was also said, quite clearly to Mrs May at Federation Conference when she dismissed the idea. We have been reaping the handicaps of her tenure in the Home Office and continue to do so. One problem was that it took Chief Officers far too long to openly voice the same opinion because they were unwittingly being trained into politics instead of the truth.