60% of crimes not investigated
60% of crimes not investigated
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Discussion

dave7108

Original Poster:

392 posts

183 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Bigends

6,158 posts

157 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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My force never set a target - average number of crimes screened out would be around 45% - 50% daily. As we took on more and more inexperienced staff the number would decrease leaving Police supervisory on area to carry out that screening.

Edited by Bigends on Tuesday 23 April 23:36

numtumfutunch

5,173 posts

167 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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This story comes as no surprise to anybody who frequents cycling websites.

It isnt hard to believe that there are people making a career of targeted bike theft with little concern of ever being caught


Gameface

16,565 posts

106 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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"If your life is in danger, you've been seriously hurt, we will still turn up," Mr Hopkins told BBC Radio Manchester.

That's good of them.

Terminator X

20,627 posts

233 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Pretty obvious to most including the crims unfortunately. I wouldn't even bother calling the rozzers unless I felt my life was in danger.

TX.

EU_Foreigner

2,838 posts

255 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Well, my council tax has just been hiked by 14.5% so I hope to see some benefit of this increase in funding, and not a higher appearance of mobile speed traps instead.

ElectricPics

761 posts

110 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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EU_Foreigner said:
Well, my council tax has just been hiked by 14.5% so I hope to see some benefit of this increase in funding, and not a higher appearance of mobile speed traps instead.
How much of that 14% is from an increase in the Policing precept though?

daddy cool

4,107 posts

258 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Gameface said:
"If your life is in danger, you've been seriously hurt, we will still turn up," Mr Hopkins told BBC Radio Manchester.
Mr Hopkins then added "sorry, I have to get back to the station now - ive just been informed that someone on twitter called someone else on twitter a "great big sthead", so all leave has been cancelled until we get to the bottom of that horrendous crime".

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Had the Twitter comment just need a speeding one. But disappointed it wasn’t he first reply.


Demand has increased over the past decade and there are fewer officers.

Seems a pretty obviously cause and effect.

I imagine within the 60% most have a low / very-low probability of detection regardless of anything else.

Gmlgml

404 posts

110 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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daddy cool said:
Mr Hopkins then added "sorry, I have to get back to the station now - ive just been informed that someone on twitter called someone else on twitter a "great big sthead", so all leave has been cancelled until we get to the bottom of that horrendous crime".
Trust me that the vast majority of those in policing share your frustrations with this but the police have next to zero discretion in what gets “recorded” as a crime. It’s down to the home office. They and the constabulary inspectorate are ruthless in checking the rules have been applied.

True story 1

Boy blows paper off a McDonald’s straw at his friend sitting opposite. Misses. Hits the back of the head of a girl sat at the next table. She doesn’t even notice. Passing member of the public is “outraged” enough to report this “assault” to the police. Rules dictate “outraged” is spoken to and the matter Is crimed. Takes a few hours of police time.

True story 2.

Shed gets burgled. Cheeky bugger takes a massive garden furniture set piece by piece. Victim phones up and gets crime number. The home owner does some enquiries with neighbours. Possibly able to give a loose route burglar possibly took with the property, but ultimately not a lot to go on.

Now, on many occasions this would be screened out, but it just so happened I had a few staff spare not dealing with “outraged et al.”

Sent them out to knock on doors. Found cctv. Led to a few more doors. Led to some intel. Led to searching the systems. Led to a likely suspect. Led to a few more front doors. led to enough to lock him up. Led to furniture reunited with owner within 12hrs, a lot of other stolen property and a big bag of drugs. Net result is burglar will hopefully get some jail time. Takes a few hours of police time.

The point being the ability to do true story 2 is severely curtailed by having to comply with true story 1.

It really is just a lottery sometimes. The staff I used on true story 2 just happened to be available because there wasn’t as much true story 1 going on at that particular time.

Sad and frustrating but that’s the reality of it.

Riley Blue

23,205 posts

255 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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In a nutshell, GMP is not fit for purpose.

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Agreed. Imagine only having 6200 officers to cover the areas GMP do.

Bit like having their two famous football clubs only being able to put out 9 men during games.

Phil Dicky

7,194 posts

292 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Riley Blue said:
In a nutshell, GMP is not fit for purpose.
I imagine most Forces fall under this category, but with constant cut backs it's to be expected. Nothing a well informed person wouldn't have already assumed.

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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They all still manage to keep the prisons constantly full, which isn't bad in the circumstances.

Bigends

6,158 posts

157 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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La Liga said:
They all still manage to keep the prisons constantly full, which isn't bad in the circumstances.
For the more serious offences maybe - they are the offence types that wont be screened out.
Its the volume, less serious quality of life impacting crime types that get screened out.

Coilspring

577 posts

92 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Phil Dicky said:
I imagine most Forces fall under this category, but with constant cut backs it's to be expected. Nothing a well informed person wouldn't have already assumed.
Austerity for you.

But any increase in crime is not down to the cuts, apparantly.

In my thinking, if crims know they are more likely to get away with it they will do more. That seems to go against the official line though.

Less manpower, more demand = unsurprising outcome

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
quotequote all
Bigends said:
La Liga said:
They all still manage to keep the prisons constantly full, which isn't bad in the circumstances.
For the more serious offences maybe - they are the offence types that wont be screened out.
Its the volume, less serious quality of life impacting crime types that get screened out.
I wonder what the actual probability of detection is vs the perception and 'comfort' of merely having a police officer come and visit is with those crimes.

I bet the vast majority would be undetected even with officer attendance (assuming they're screened well enough). Forces have done some experimentation, including sending officers / CSI to burglaries and not sending them to burglaries (ones without obvious lines of inquiry / forensic opportunities). They outcomes didn't change.

I never liked the policies of 'send CID to all burglaries' as they didn't seem based on any rational outcome improvements. My view was send them to the ones where there's a reasonable change of detection.


Coilspring

577 posts

92 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
quotequote all
La Liga said:
I wonder what the actual probability of detection is vs the perception and 'comfort' of merely having a police officer come and visit is with those crimes.

I bet the vast majority would be undetected even with officer attendance (assuming they're screened well enough). Forces have done some experimentation, including sending officers / CSI to burglaries and not sending them to burglaries (ones without obvious lines of inquiry / forensic opportunities). They outcomes didn't change.

I never liked the policies of 'send CID to all burglaries' as they didn't seem based on any rational outcome improvements. My view was send them to the ones where there's a reasonable change of detection.
That's all pretty sensible. But if there are patches of crime in specific areas they need more investigation than a single crime with low chance of detection.

There needs to be a balance, and manpower to achieve it.

It is very easy to say, very little chance of solving that so just record it and move on. A lot harder to say, that needs investigating when no manpower is available.

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
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Coilspring said:
La Liga said:
I wonder what the actual probability of detection is vs the perception and 'comfort' of merely having a police officer come and visit is with those crimes.

I bet the vast majority would be undetected even with officer attendance (assuming they're screened well enough). Forces have done some experimentation, including sending officers / CSI to burglaries and not sending them to burglaries (ones without obvious lines of inquiry / forensic opportunities). They outcomes didn't change.

I never liked the policies of 'send CID to all burglaries' as they didn't seem based on any rational outcome improvements. My view was send them to the ones where there's a reasonable change of detection.
That's all pretty sensible. But if there are patches of crime in specific areas they need more investigation than a single crime with low chance of detection.

There needs to be a balance, and manpower to achieve it.

It is very easy to say, very little chance of solving that so just record it and move on. A lot harder to say, that needs investigating when no manpower is available.
You're quite right, there need to be effective mechanisms to identify patterns / 'hot spots' that need viewing as a series rather than individual low-probability of detection crimes.

One of the fundamental issues is the police spend far too much time on things they shouldn't be involved in, or should be involved in to a lesser degree like child protection, mental health, anti-social behaviour and missing people.

Bigends

6,158 posts

157 months

Tuesday 23rd April 2019
quotequote all
Certainly if one area of my force was hit by a certain crime type - even low level - the area could put a request through to the control room requesting mandatory attendance whenever that crime type was reported. These reports wouldnt therefore be screened out but linked on the crime system and allocated to one investigator to deal and update.