Targets Forcing Real Policing Out

It has been claimed that Government pressure to meet targets is forcing detectives off major investigations.

A Police Federation report has said that in one case an officer was stopped his hunt for a paedophile ring to focus on solving burglaries.

Because less serious crimes are often more quickly 'cleared-up' figures are being manipulated by selective investigations.

Alan Gordon, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said that pressure to hit crime figure targets is distorting the way crime is being recorded.

He said that, in order to meet the targets, detectives were being re-deployed from in-depth investigations of grave crimes to tackle less serious crimes that were more easily solved.

Some forces were artificially deflating crime statistics by encouraging people whose mobile phones had been stolen to report them as having been lost, he said.

Mr Gordon added: "One officer told us that he was actually investigating a paedophile ring which he considered to be still active, but at that time the force were under considerable pressure to reduce crime in a particular area such as burglary.

"If he'd arrested the paedophiles it would still have only been one tick in the box, and therefore no more importance was attached to that than actually investigating burglaries.

"I think that was a very harsh indication of how policing activity has been skewed and directed in the wrong way by the target regime which has been imposed on us."

However, Police Minister Tony McNulty said the federation was exaggerating the situation in order "to make a point".

"I respect their views. I just think they over-egg and exaggerate to make a point, sometimes to the detriment of the members and that's not in their own interests.

Also, according to figures on vacant detective posts gathered through the National Detectives' Forum - a subsidiary of the Police Federation - there is a chronic shortage of sufficiently qualified officers.

Mr Gordon said the dearth of adequately qualified officers meant inquiries into serious crimes were being led by officers with insufficient experience.

"Some of the staffing levels have reached an appallingly low scale," he said.

(BMcC)