Police report reveals victims told 'solve crimes yourself’

An inspection of police forces in England and Wales revealed that victims of crimes are ‘being encouraged to make local enquiries’ themselves.

17:55 04 September 2014

An inspection of police forces in England and Wales confirmed that there are crimes that police simply don’t attempt to investigate. Because of this, some crimes including criminal damage and car crime are “on the verge of being decriminalised.”

The inspector who led the review, Roger Baker, said: "It's more a mindset, that we no longer deal with these things. And effectively what's happened is a number of crimes are on the verge of being decriminalised."

He added: "So it's not the fault of the individual staff; it's a mindset thing that's crept in to policing to say 'We've almost given up'."

However, The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Winsor, said a cut in police spending was no excuse for failing to investigate crime.

"This isn't a question of austerity, principally," he said.

"Over the last 10 years we've seen a 38% drop in crime, 10% since 2010.

"The nature of crime is changing, there's much more cyber crime, online fraud, things of that kind.

"But the public have a right to have their crimes investigated - and indeed some forces do turn up to 100% of crimes.

"Even the Metropolitan Police, the largest force in the country - they will come to all crimes if the public want them to do so."

The report revealed that some victims of theft were "asked to speak to neighbours, check for CCTV or view second-hand sales websites to see if their stolen property is being advertised for sale".