Police Must Investigate Every Theft, Declares Suella Braverman

Ms. Braverman writes: “Victims of these horrific crimes fail when the police are simply not interested in following up on reasonable leads, but simply hand them a crime reference number. It is completely unacceptable.

“Let’s be clear: all crimes matter. There is no trivial crime. And the police should not tell criminals that they are in practice free to break certain laws.”

Ms Braverman writes that she hopes the police and crime commissioners will hold the forces to account over the agreement between the police chiefs and the Home Office.

In June, The Telegraph revealed that police had not solved a single vehicle, bicycle or personal theft in between half and two-thirds of the 30,100 neighborhoods in England and Wales in the past three years. In the case of robberies, none had been solved in half of the neighborhoods during the same period.

corruption scandals

Demand for better police performance to restore public trust comes after a series of corruption and sex scandals. Ministers are demanding police focus on the “basics” of crime solving after an increase of 20,000 extra officers and a new deal with the NHS to reduce calls to police for mental health incidents.

According to the guidelines, police must investigate all crimes where there is clear CCTV recordings, doorbell or dash cam images, eyewitness accounts, “hard forensic” evidence such as fingerprints or DNA from blood or hair, or where there are stolen goods with “unique” characteristics. like a bicycle or a phone with serial numbers.

Rules will also be introduced to require officers to attend to robberies “as soon as possible” to increase the chances of solving them through the early collection of evidence and witnesses.

Ms. Braverman also empowers police to test arrested suspects for cannabis and ketamine, the party drug, so they can be treated for their addiction and stay away from crime. She and she urged police to make “full use” of stop and search to address the “blatant and antisocial” use of drugs on the streets.