ACS

In response to a report on crime counts undertaken by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) the Home Office have announced measure to ensure hard evidence is provided to determine a ‘No Crime’. The term ‘No Crimed’ is used to register instances where police officers have not thought it necessary to make further inquiries into the incident.

The report from HIMC identified that an estimated 200,000 complaints are ‘no crimed’ each year. Therefore in the Home Office’s response to the report stated that “no crimes are required to have sufficient ‘additional verifiable information’ which demonstartes definitively that the incident recorded as a crime was not actually one in practice. The expectation is that hard evidence such as CCTV footage would be used.”

It is integral that crimes are reported and recorded properly but these measure have resulted in mixed reviews from the police. Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation was reported to have said “we are going to end up investigating every incident to prove no crime has happened. We need to trust the officer’s discretion. All we are doing is making the process more bureaucratic.”