The UK police, perhaps the best in the world, are now asked to perform such a breadth of tasks, with new laws and regulations and procedures coming into effect all the time, that they are completely under-resourced to enforce much of the criminal law, particularly as to minor crime. Serious crime too needs far more attention, but less important offences distract necessary capability. Without enforcement, such laws lose their teeth and meaning. The Home Office declares the extra 20,000 new officers will ensure the police have the resources they need to tackle crime. This is nonsense unless there are major changes to practices and prioritisations, with tasks being reassigned and underlying issues addressed. Take the 3 following reports from the Daily Telegraph recently:
-HATE INCIDENTS:
Between 2015 and 2019, 27 England and Wales police forces reported 87,000 non-crime hate incidents. Apparently, guidelines require these things to be recorded, even though there is NO CRIME! How wasteful this is when police are stretched beyond capacity even to deal with serious crime, let alone minor crime. Where is the sense? And where is the political and management leadership to stop such practice?
Also, it is probably a waste of police time to have them record hate crime which involves abusive words but no violence or incitement to violence: if society is so weak and lacking resilience that leaders feel this must be registered ,then find another organisation to do it and let the police focus on the most serious of things.
-VEHICLE CRIME:
it is reported that only 1 in 400 crimes where offenders broke into or stole a vehicle results in jail, a fine or community service. Clearly low priority offences such as these receive little attention. Apparently in 58% of the vehicle crimes up to October 2019, the investigation was closed with no suspect identified. Is a new approach required to deal with this sector of offences?
-MENTAL HEALTH:
The Chairman of the Police Federation is reported to have said that officers now devote 80 per cent of their time to non-crime related incidents, the lion’s share of which were because of a mental health crisis. For example, in just a year the number of detentions under Section136 of the Mental Health Act rose from 26,662 to 33,238. Apparently, each such case takes many hours, involving often one or more police officers for an entire shift. Perhaps also, a lot of actual crime is mental health related (See DRUGS-RELATED CRIME CRISIS below). While police do need to be involved in Section 136 cases, are the right people doing the right roles in this area and are the processes efficient, particularly when it comes to aftercare? Perhaps another re-think is required.
Consider also ACTION FRAUD. The public is urged to report all cases of fraud, scams and cyber- crime to Action Fraud, which itself is not the police, but a privately-run organisation. It in turn passes them on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). The NFIB decides which cases to refer to the police. WHICH? Money estimates that over 96% of cases reported to Action Fraud get unresolved. The vast majority are apparently not referred to the police. There are hundreds of thousands, even millions, of incidents a year; many, it is assumed, quite minor, though maybe not for the victims. Action Fraud is sometimes criticised, but the police cannot cope with enforcing the law against all the different frauds which are perpetrated. Fraud will inevitably grow as the chances of detection are so low. It is questionable too whether most police have the training in any event to deal with fraud except at the lowest level. A new process, maybe involving a new investigatory approach, is needed. Fraud aside, other theft offences against property are in addition receiving little enough attention, such as burglary.
RE-ALLOCATION OF ROLES?
The above scratches the surface but in itself evidences the lack of resource to handle the types of crime referred to. The police need to be freed to deal with serious crime- violence of many kinds, including child abuse and rape as well as knife-crime; serious cyber and other fraud; terrorism; organised crime; gang crime; keeping the streets, businesses, and homes safe, to name a few. These should be real priorities and leadership should have the courage to face up to the fact that some minor things must be dealt with in other ways. This is without taking into account other police duties, such as personal security for VIPs, policing demonstrations, responding to traffic incidents, again to name a few. Our police are expected to deal with the worst society has to offer: some things must be taken off their hands to let them do their job properly so that police men and women want to stay in the force and do that job.
MERGING FORCES
Recent reports also refer to the fact there are too many police forces, with incompatible systems and clumsy cooperation, suggesting it could all be more efficient, and money released for important things, if forces were merged. That is, standardise systems and cash in on synergies. If so, then hopefully someone with power and courage will implement that. Managements like focussing on structures as they can control them and can show visible activity. Mergers may be good, but they are not the answer. Big answers to resourcing lie, as with the NHS, in focussing on the underlying problems and spending effort and money solving those. The most obvious one is DRUGS.
DRUGS-RELATED CRIME CRISIS
A vast amount of police time is absorbed in drug-related matters, whether the possession of cannabis or other materials, or dealing with the consequences of drug abuse- human misery, crimes to fund habits, vagrancy, violence or just cleaning up. A simple arrest for possession takes hours of police time (with excessive admin and bureaucracy) and probably results in no meaningful prosecution much of the time. Drugs have invaded schools. The street-level distributors are recruited from our school age ranks. There are an estimated 2000 County Lines in the UK: intimidation and violence, it is accepted, go with them. Britain is thought to be the EU’s biggest crack market. Drugs breed serious crimes.
It is submitted that, if the drug abuse and associated activity, could be wrested from the criminal sector, so much of the waste and decadence related to it would be reduced and police resources freed up. What if drug users were not arrested and not taken to police stations, but instead taken to drug centres, part of the social services and health system? Not a new idea. It will require resources but, long- term, drugs must be taken away from the control of the criminals. Many other issues pale into insignificance. Where is the strategic plan to solve the drug crisis? Where are the ideas? Is there any urgent national project involving the social services, the police, the NHS and other relevant agencies, as well as high level Government, together to make something new happen? Without something new, nothing will change, and the drugs crisis will worsen.
The BIG ISSUE is that, while an extra 20,000 officers are to be welcomed, as may be efficiency mergers, those propositions do not address the big issues. The police leadership must direct the police forces’ role to deal with the most pressing problems, and they and the Government must find other ways to take away from the police duties which they simply cannot fulfil without neglecting the most important, which is serious crime. As Sherbhert has previously pleaded, addressing and reducing the problems around drug abuse with a non-criminalisation approach will not only increase the quality of life for its victims and society as a whole, and increase productivity, but it will also help solve the crisis of our overstretched , but so admirable, police forces.
