Has the public given up on the police?

Latest figures from the Home Office show that in the 12 months to March only 7.8% of reported crimes resulted in a charge being brought against an offender. The figure was 15% four years ago.

Much of the blame is being put on reduced police numbers after 10 years of austerity and increasingly complex types of crime but there was also a sharp rise [23%] in the number of cases where an offender was identified but the victim refused to cooperate.

Overall crimes in England & Wales increased by 8% to 5.9 million with 43,516 offences of knife crime. Firearms offences and robbery also increased dramatically over the same period.

David Wilson – emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University – has warned that the public is giving up on the police and simply not reporting crimes even if they are serious saying “The public by and large have given up believing the police have the resources to do their job”.