Police forces ‘taking longer to respond to serious offences’

The BBC said responses from 19 forces suggested they were 44% slower to arrive at emergency incidents after 999 calls than in 2013.
Police forces are reportedly taking an average of three minutes longer to respond to serious offences in England and Wales compared with six years ago (Nick Potts/PA)
PA Wire
Meg Hill30 May 2022

Police forces are reportedly taking an average of three minutes longer to attend serious offences in England and Wales compared with six years ago.

BBC News said information requests from 22 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales suggest officers are now 28% slower to attend Grade 1 emergencies after receiving 999 calls.

This equates to taking three minutes longer on average to arrive at serious incidents.

The BBC said responses from 19 forces suggested they were 44% slower to arrive at serious incidents than in 2013.

The public should have confidence in the police and that their force will do everything in their power to solve and prevent crime

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse

The broadcaster also reported that the number of recorded crimes leading to a charge or court summons for a perpetrator fell for the last seven consecutive years, up to March 2021. Between 2015 and 2021 it fell by 40%.

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse told the BBC: “The public should have confidence in the police and that their force will do everything in their power to solve and prevent crime.

“We know that responding quickly to 101 and 999 calls is vital when tackling crime, which is why we have committed to improving the responsiveness of local police by publishing league tables to hold local forces to account.”

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