Met Police 'shelves a third of crimes after single call to victims'

Metropolitan Police Control Room, New Scotland Yard, London. Five people in the capital called the force more than 8,600 times in 2017
Shutterstock
Bonnie Christian29 November 2018
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A third of crimes reported to the Met Police are shelved after a single phone call to the victim, according to reports.

Officers dismiss crimes such as burglaries, low-level assaults, criminal damage, theft and affray, following a secret policy introduced last year, The Times reported.

A triage zone for crime reports, the telephone and digital investigation unit (TDIU), is responsible for telling victims their cases will not be pursued because of criteria such as CCTV or forensic leads, according to the newspaper.

A crime is assessed as “out” if a suspect cannot be identified by a victim or witness to a crime.

The TDIU looked at 200,000 crime reports over nine months last year and assessed out 80 per cent after a single phone call to the victim. These account for 29.6 per cent of crimes reported to the Met.

Around 30 per cent of the unit’s demand comes through online reporting, with the remaining 70 per cent originating from calls made to the force, which are then transferred to the TDIU.

The Times reported that 1.26million calls to the Met’s non-emergency 101 number were abandoned last year, 50 per cent higher than in 2016.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mark Simmons, in charge of local policing, said every crime report is investigated whether through face to face contact or through a phone call.

“But like any organisation we have got a budget to work to, we have demand to meet, and have to make decisions about what we prioritise,” he said.

“We have to take a clear view about what is most important for Londoners in terms of safety.

“We have to admit there are going to be crimes that we are responding differently to than we would have in the past, but it is not to say that because a response team won’t be deployed to an incident that these crimes won’t be investigated in a different way.

“I would much rather our detectives are investigating stabbings and diverting gang members rather than dealing with some of the work which was possible to do when numbers were not so tight.

“We cannot do everything in the way we could before, crime is continually changing and adapting, and our numbers are fewer. We have had to realign our resources and invest more in different areas to meet the challenges we are facing. I want to reassure the public that we are here and will do everything in our power to help.”

Critics say the new policy means there is a potential for relatively serious crimes to slip through the net.

A list of more than 25 crimes that must be investigated include homicide, firearms offences, hate crime, domestic violence and sexual assault.

Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly said that it was not acceptable to ignore crimes such as burglary and assault. “The Met clearly needs to innovate to become more efficient, but what’s unacceptable is for reporting changes to come at the expense of a responsive police force,” she told the Times.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT