Wake-up call on crime

by Mark Rowe

Recent figures released by the Home Office concerning the drastic decline in police officer numbers and, the latest crime statistics released to March end 2017 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) must act as a wake-up call, writes our long-time contributor Jim Gannon.

Politicians and those responsible for administering the system can no longer sit around pontificating on what the future may hold for fighting crime in the UK as we are blasted from all sides by some cold hard facts. Police officer numbers have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years and while the Home Office report outlined the decline, it pointed out that it was not based on directly comparable statistics. One of the reasons for this of course like crime statistics, is that they keep on moving the goalposts so that comparable analysis is almost impossible to achieve.

The Home Office report confirmed that police strength was at its lowest level at the end of the last financial year since like for like records began in 1996; but not directly comparable records show that officer numbers were now the lowest since 1985. The chairman of the Police Federation Steve White has been recently quoted as saying ‘what more of a wake-up call does the Government need’ and there are a lot of the public who would echo that sentiment. Given that police numbers continue to fall year on year whilst the police have to face more everyday crime and endure the type of terrorist atrocities recently committed in London and Manchester, is it any wonder that the Police Federation shows real concern about the constant fall in front line and neighbourhood police officer numbers.

Crime figures

The latest figures released by ONS show soaring reported crime figures and the largest annual leap for a decade. A massive 10pc increase including a significant rise in theft, violent crime and sexual attacks. The so called annual reversal of reported crime has apparently come to an end as the boffins have run out of ideas on how to present the figures rather than relying on the statement that it’s down to better recording by the police. The private security industry is only too aware that the figures do not reflect the true status of crime in the business community and in the retail industry the theft and fraud figures are well off the mark.

The Office for National Statistics reported that almost five million crimes were actually recorded indicating that there was an increase of over 458,000 compared with the same period last year. The ONS said that the surge was partly driven by the rise in ‘violence against the person’ which showed an increase of 18pc and violent offences which similarly showed a rise of 18pc with over a million crimes recorded in England and Wales. Reported knife crime rose by 20pc to the highest figure recorded for seven years to almost 35,000 incidents an extremely worrying aspect of street crime today. Rapes and sexual offences rose by 15pc and 14pc respectively again to the highest level since current recording methods were introduced in 2002.

Whilst the so called experts maintain that the rise is partly due to the fact that victims are now more inclined to report attacks we should not forget those victims who never come forward for a multitude of reasons.

Fraud continues to rise

As expected fraud including online scams rose by 5pc although this was less than I expected. I suspect this is because many victims are too embarrassed to admit they have been conned or paid upfront for things such as holiday accommodation which never existed. Villa scams are just one of the new twists involving the use of fake websites to search for cheap deals and scammers advertising accommodation which exists but neither owned or managed by them. Many of these scamming sites mirror the real thing and are very convincing. Barclays have been offering some sound advice recently on how to protect yourself against villa scammers. Search ‘Barclays Security’ to find out more.

The worst part of this is that it often leaves holiday-makers stranded without accommodation and owners or their genuine agents faced with distraught families with nowhere to go. These villa scammers exploit the standard human weakness of always seeking a bargain, pitching their prices below market levels and giving reasons for their low price such as a last minute cancellation. It is not unusual for scam websites to be only up for a week being replaced with firms of a different name fraudulently displaying the ABTA logo usually seen as a guarantee of legitimacy.

The last word

Victim support groups have recently expressed concern over the latest crime figures especially where crimes involve violence. Prof David Wilson a well respected criminologist at Birmingham City University (BCU) was recently quoted as saying that ‘we know police numbers are at their lowest for decades and we are now seeing the consequences in rising crime’. Nick Hurd the Police Minister has said ‘We recognise that crime is changing and we are determined to get ahead of new and emerging threats to the safety and security of our families and communities.’

Whilst the falling police numbers and the rising crime statistics are an obvious concern which must be tackled immediately, we should not overlook the fact there is a vast team fighting crime and its effect on UK business and its communities but our inability to know exactly who is in this country legitimately is still a major problem to overcome.

For more ONS stats visit https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice.

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