UK public has given up on the police
THE shocking findings of a recent survey by Neighbourhood Watch revealed that 28 per cent of crimes went unreported last year.
One in six victims of crime don’t report offences to the police because they believe it would be a waste of time. That is a terrible indictment of modern policing. These offences include serious
crime – sexual assault, domestic violence, physical attacks and burglaries.
From the poll, more than half of victims didn’t bother to report the crime because they had no expectation anything would be done. And one in 10 respondents reported that although they had started the procedure of reporting the crime, they discontinued the process having decided it was a pointless exercise.
Alarmingly, more than 200 victims revealed they were “too scared” to involve the police. Hardly surprising when you consider the shocking revelations about the recent police misconduct cases, including the vile Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and
murdered Sarah Everard. How can such shocking crimes by serving police officers not seriously erode public confidence in the police?
Tellingly, Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women’s Justice, rightly said that victims were losing faith with the criminal justice process.
In a Home Office survey conducted in 2023 it was revealed one in 10 rape and sexual assault victims elected not to contact the police, citing the main reasons as feelings of shame and apprehension that they wouldn’t be believed, and, more worryingly, a basic mistrust of the police.
Equally appalling was the response to the survey from a National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) spokesman. Instead of
words of reassurance that offences will be properly investigated, he used words that are a masterclass in ambiguity and obfuscation, namely that reported offences are “...dealt with appropriately...”.
The harsh reality is that the police action taken “appropriately” in many cases is absolutely nothing in terms of meaningful investigation into solving the crime.
These weasel words from the NPCC will have the opposite effect to that intended, and many victims will continue to not report offences because they’ve basically given up on the police.
Sir Robert Peel, regarded as the father of modern British policing, must be turning in his grave.