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Throwing a sock and stealing a puff of perfume: Britain’s new crimewave
Police are contributing to a surge in recorded crime by counting misdemeanours such as a “stolen” spray of perfume and an assault with a sock, The Times has learnt.
Forces have recorded minor disagreements as violent offences and simple accidents as criminal damage because of an edict that all complaints from the public must be included in official statistics.
Police and crime commissioners yesterday criticised the recording rules, which are believed to be behind a 30 per cent leap in violence-without-injury offences in 12 months. Public order offences have also surged by nearly 20 per cent across England and Wales, while individual forces have reported leaps of up to 130 per cent in some minor crime categories.
In one case, a teenage girl was reported to Hampshire Constabulary after a domestic argument in which she used her mother’s perfume before running out of the house. Although the bottle remained intact, her puff was recorded as theft because officers are told to enforce Home Office rules which require criminal complaints to be recorded unless they can be demonstrably disproved.
Simon Hayes, the area’s elected crime chief, said: “The officers were never going to be able to prove whether or not the daughter did help herself to the perfume. So the crime also remains unsolved. That’s the bizarre nature of the counting regulations.”
While stringent recording has been enforced following revelations that crime statistics were manipulated to meet targets, senior police officers have expressed concern that minor incidents are now being elevated into crime. In London, a scuffle between teenage brothers in which one threw a piece of toast was recorded as assault.
When a convenience store owner reported that someone had crushed a packet of crisps without purchasing them, it was recorded as criminal damage. One officer working in a coastal town revealed that assault was recorded when a man threw a sock at his mother, and in another area the same offence was recorded when a sausage roll was thrown from a car.
Jeff Farrar, the lead for statistics on the National Police Chiefs Council, said: “Officers previously would have used their common sense, whereas now they are just put into the system.” He said inflated figures would have an unfair impact on the public’s perception of crime but pointed out that the change in recording had been essential to get rid of manipulation and ensure greater consistency across forces.
Mr Hayes said that police should be allowed to use their discretion when deciding whether to record crime.
“This is placing an unnecessary burden of bureaucracy on the police at a time when resources are tight and they need to concentrate on the more serious issues. One of the great things about the British bobby was that they had discretion to use their wisdom and experience. That is slowly being flushed away and they are recording matters they don’t even think are crime.”
Hampshire Police had a 130 per cent increase in public order offences in the eight months to August compared with the same time period last year. The Metropolitan Police recorded an 11 per cent increase in criminal damage offences in the 12 months to August.
According to the Office for National Statistics, incidents involving violence without injury rose by nearly 100,000 across the country in 2014/15, compared with the previous 12 months. Public order offences across England and Wales also increased by 19 per cent to just under 160,000.