Police criticised for not solving enough crimes

Police are failing to solve enough crimes, a report by MPs has claimed.

The report by the Home Affairs Select Committee into the progress of the government's three-year police reform programme said, "too few criminals are brought to justice" and stressed that this was a "matter for concern".

The Committee said that only 19% of reported crimes resulted in a conviction and the report "emphasised the importance" of the Home Office's pledge to increase this to 25% by 2008.

The report also tackled the issue of having more police officers on the beat. The Committee said that there was a "strong public desire" to have more officers on the street and it said that "good progress" had been made towards achieving this, highlighting the use of fixed-penalty tickets in helping to free up more police time. However, the report said the situation could be improved by introducing more effective information technology.

The Committee also criticised the government's definition of 'front-line policing', which included work spent on report preparation and case files, negatively affected statistics and gave an "exaggerated impression of success" of returning more officers to street duties.

The report also said that there was evidence to suggest that police training had been "squeezed" due to budget restraints and recommended that there should be no further cuts. It also said that many police forces still remained unrepresentative of their communities, despite recent increases in recruitment from minority ethnic groups.

However, the report praised the government's reforms on police pay, conditions and working practises and congratulated the Home Office in reducing high levels of ill-health retirement and sickness absence.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Chris Fox, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said: “The major priority of the police service is to reduce crime, and to this end we take all crime seriously. We recognise that victims deserve to see offenders brought to justice for crimes committed. However, whilst many criminals caught by the police have committed more than one offence, a successful prosecution and conviction will assist in the overall prevention of crime, even where the other offences committed may not be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. We have every confidence that we are catching and convicting the right people."

Mr Fox also added that the risk of being a victim of crime is still at its lowest level for 23 years.

(KmcA)