Crime, detection and punishment

I blogged last month about how the Police were no longer investigating certain crimes and so criminals were not being deterred; as I said then "the chances of a thief getting caught are slim, the chances of their case being proceeded with are less than 25%, the chance of getting convicted slim and the chance of actually being meaningfully punished even slimmer."

Today you can read here that the Police didn't investigate 2 million crimes last year. "Among forces which provided figures, the highest rate of screening out was by the Metropolitan Police, with 53 per cent of reported offences dealt with in this way. Out of 97,000 burglaries in the capital, 64,000 were not investigated.". You can also read here that "Time that police officers spend filling out forms is counted as "frontline policing" in statistics, the Home Office has admitted. Critics have accused ministers of "fiddling" the figures, which allegedly show that officers spent almost two-thirds of their time last year on frontline duties. They say the statistics are misleading because they include hours spent on forms, investigating complaints against police, and attending village fetes. Tony McNulty, the police minister, revealed how the official statistics were compiled in a Parliamentary answer. Asked how much time police spend on paperwork and how much on patrol, he responded with one figure, the "frontline policing measure", which indicates that the average officer spent 64.2 per cent of his or her time on frontline duties last year. The minister admitted that the figure "includes time in station completing incident-related paperwork"."

The Police in this country are well on the way to being a complete joke, they seem happiest setting speed traps for motorists and arresting people for opposing homosexuality; actually catching burglars and muggers seems to be beyond them.