According to police watchdog, crimes are being investigated by inexperienced uniformed officers due to a shortage of investigators. A report found offences such as burglary and theft bare often resolved over the phone or assigned to “beat” officers (officers who patrol on foot or bicycle). HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said a quarter of victims are not receiving the service they should be.
The report look at 14 constabularies in England and Wales, it included evidence not being gathered and potential lines of inquiry being missed. A quarter of victim cases investigated did not receive the service they should expect.
HM Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr said: “It used to be that you would have your CID, your response force, your community policing and they all had very discrete jobs.
“Response officers didn’t do investigations. Now they do. They don’t have the same accreditation, they don’t have the same experience.”
In 2018, a House of Commons report warned that policing risked becoming “irrelevant”, with vanishing neighbourhood presences and low detection rates.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We recognise new demands are putting pressure on the police and we are committed to ensuring they have the resources they need.
“This is why we have provided more than a £1bn increase in police funding compared to last year, including council tax and funding to tackle serious violence.
“There are clear areas for improvement for some forces and we expect them to consider these findings carefully and to identify and implement improvements swiftly.”
The 14 forces which were inspected were shown to be doing well in key areas and reducing inefficiencies. Issues that were brought up in the report were lack of supervision and oversight of stop and search – the tactic that is seen as vital with reducing knife crimes from taking place.
There is an increasing pressure on the police is due to cuts in their budgets and an increase of complex demands.
John Apter, chair of the Police Federation, representing rank and file officers, said: “Our recent survey showed extreme stress in policing is very much real, with nearly 90% of officers saying there are not enough of them to manage the demands faced by their team or unit.
“And now we have this report laying bare the consequences of years of austerity cuts – how much more evidence does the government need for it to provide a meaningful funding deal?”
