CRIME STATISTICS HIDE THE TRUTH

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BRITISH CRIME SURVEY OR RECORDED CRIME - WHICH IS RIGHT?We have been looking at the crime statistics released by the Home Office.

Despite having trawled through the guidance notes that accompany the Government statistics, we are at a loss to account for the massive disparities that exist between the British Crime Survey and Police recorded crime.

The Home Office clearly place great importance on the British Crime Survey (BCS), as this quote from the Home Office website confirms :-

"The BCS includes crimes which are not reported to the police, so it is an important alternative to police records. The BCS is a particularly important survey because it can provide a more complete picture of crime than police recorded crime statistics alone. The BCS includes crimes which are not reported to, or recorded by, the police and is therefore unaffected by changes in recording practices. It can provide the best guide to long-term trends in crime".

The crime statistics that tend to hit the headlines are the ones that can most easily be manipulated.

As the above report shows, the tried and trusted BCS figures, reflect a crime rate double that reported to the police. The supporting document goes to great lengths to describe why so many offences are not reported to the police. To download a copy of the report click here

Reports from front line officers, of ridculous levels of bureacracy and procedure confirms what many of the public already suspect, that their effectiveness is severely impaired. This results in a lack of public confidence, not in the bobby on the beat, but in the system of policing in the UK.

The report shows the BCS comparable count and the actual recorded crime for key offences.

It suggests that violence is twice that reported and robbery 5 times the police figure.

5 YEARS ON - NO BETTER

Five years ago, a letter was sent to the London Evening Standard, by PC Norman Brennan, serving as Director of Victims Crime Trust. The letter is reproduced below :-

Crime statistics hide the truth

IT is rare that front-line police officers speak out, but I feel the public has the right to hear us.

When I joined the police service in 1978, there were only 13,150 recorded robberies in England and Wales. Most robberies were reported because of public confidence in the justice system.

Last year, this figure had risen to a massive 101,195 recorded robberies, and the British Crime Survey, the Government’s preferred method of measuring crime, which made your front-page last week (22 July) will show the true figure to be at least double or triple this number.
Murder is at its highest rate since the Second World War. The only reason it is not many times higher is because of the skill of our surgeons.

Although police chiefs are loath to admit it, there are parts of our cities that are, in effect, no-go areas. My colleagues joined the police service to protect and support the public, but they are prevented from doing so now because of huge amounts of political correctness and red tape. We are given so many targets we almost stand still.

Politicians can make statistics look as good or as bad as they want, but the police and the public live in the real world and know the truth. I am amazed even in the latest British Crime Survey, the Government omitted crimes of murder, sex offences, fraud, crime against commercial premises and, more important, crimes against children under 16, who make up a significant proportion of victims of crime.

I believe the situation on law and order is so bad that, to borrow a medical term, it is on a life-support machine. In my personal and professional opinion, the criminal justice system is in crisis. It is not just criminals we should be putting in the dock, but the Government. Mr Blair, you can fool some of people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

PC Norman Brennan, director, Victims of Crime Trust, Twickenham, Middlesex.

From Blair to Brown, five years later, little has changed, as the report above shows.

Crime is still significantly higher than the authorities would have us believe.

Front line police officers are still discouraged from speaking out about the lack of resources and being buried in paperork and bureaucratic "protect the backside" processes that prevent them performing more effectively.

Politicians still have too great an influence over policing in this country. Having two sources of crime statistics enables politicians to manipulate headline to read exactly how they want, with their own reasond for doing so.

As one officer put it "The police service is living and telling lies at the moment just like MP’s expenses. Someone is going to get caught out soon, but they just don’t get it do they!"

Enough said.

Crime Analysis Team

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