Crime clear up figures highlight regional failings

Ministers have been urged to get a grip on the worst-performing police forces as it has emerged that police are solving fewer than five rapes or personal thefts per 1,000 reported crimes.

 

Alleged victims of rape and theft are 14 times less likely to get justice in the lowest-ranked forces than in the best-performing according to analysis of Home Office data for the year ending March 2020.

 

In Suffolk only 5 in 1,000 rape cases resulted in a charge or other sanction compared with 68 rapes per 1,000 in Co Durham which was consistently in the top five ranked forces along with North and South Wales police forces.

 

The victims' commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, said the wide variations and "disappointingly low" clear-up rates were "worrying. These figures suggest we have a postcode lottery," she said. "There needs to be a concerted drive to improve those forces consistently lagging behind."

 

Head of the police foundation, Rick Muir, which is conducting a strategic review into policing in the UK, said that in face of cuts in policing there had been a "loss of focus" on solving crimes.  "There are disparities here that need explaining. We need to shine a light on it. There are some forces that have a case to answer."

 

Kent had the lowest rate for sexual offences with just 28 per 1000 reported crimes resulting in a charge, out of court disposal, offence taken into consideration or other sanction, significantly lower compared with North Yorkshire's 125 per 1,000, and North and South Wales with 118 per 1,000 and 115 per 1,000 respectively.

 

Kent was also the lowest for criminal damage (at 47 per 1,000 offences), for public order (at 63 per 1,000) and for violence with injury offences (at 75 per 1,000 offences). The highest performers were Norfolk for criminal damage (at 130 per 1,000 offences), North Yorkshire for public order (at 319 per 1,000) and South Wales for violence (at 293 per 1,000). Wiltshire had the lowest rate for robbery at 49 per 1,000, while Co Durham had the best at 257 per 1,000.

 

County Durham was also top for burglary at 93 solved per 1,000, compared to only 17 per 1,000 in Greater Manchester. Kent's assistant chief constable, Peter Ayling, said, "It is important to remember that a charge is one of 21 possible outcomes for an investigation."

 

Criminologist Lawrence Sherman, contrasted the tightly-knit community in Co Durham, where police had built relations over time, with highly mobile, more diverse communities, saying that part of the explanation lay in the social and geographical profile of areas.

 

 

PM Law 

Sheffield Solicitors