Crawley MP, Henry Smith, has welcomed news that the public will get a clearer picture of how police are tackling crime with the introduction of more detailed crime categories. Under the current system, 70 per cent of crimes are recorded as ‘undetected’, leaving victims and the public concerned that nothing has been done by police.
Under the new recording framework a new ‘community resolution’ category will recognise the community penalties that criminals receive, increasing transparency and improving accountability.
‘Undetected’ offences also include cases where ‘no further action’ was taken as the police were unable to mount a prosecution, either because there was insufficient evidence, the alleged victim did not want to proceed or because one party died after the offence was committed.
Commenting, Henry said:
“Recording offences as ‘undetected’ when in fact a lot of police time and effort has gone into investigating the offence is totally misleading and sells our police officers short. It’s inaccurate and it’s good news that the Government is scrapping it.
“Crawley residents want to know more about crime and policing in the local area and this change will mean we get better information. It builds on the very popular online crime maps on the Police.uk website in giving local people a clearer picture of what is happening in our area.
“Under this Government, police officers are no longer bound up by paperwork and as such in Crawley we have more bobbies on the beat and more Special Constables supporting our local communities to tackle crime and the fear of crime.”
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