Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Gedling Michael Payne has revealed that more than 90% of crimes go unsolved by police in Nottinghamshire.
The latest figures, published by the Home Office, show just 8.06% of crimes resulted in a charge or summons across Nottinghamshire in the last year – that includes just 4.17% of sexual offences, and just 7.52% of violent crimes.
Across Nottinghamshire just 9.21 % of robbery offences resulted in a charge or summons.
Responding to the latest official figures, Michael Payne, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Gedling said, “People in Nottinghamshire want to feel safe – but these figures show that after 13 years of Conservative government, the vast majority of crimes are going unpunished, including some of the most serious crimes there are.
“Nottinghamshire’s Conservative Police & Crime Commissioner promised to be ‘tough on crime’ and ‘back victims’ but on her watch fewer than one in 10 crimes are resulting in a charge or summons.
“Families in Gedling and Nottinghamshire deserve better. That’s why Labour will make keeping our streets safe a central mission for the next Labour government. To do that, we’ll put victims first, and we’ll restore neighbourhood policing with 13,000 new neighbourhood police and PCSOs – fully funded through a police efficiency programme – with mandatory guaranteed patrols of town centres by dedicated officers.”
But Deputy Chief Constable Steve Cooper, of Nottinghamshire Police, cast doubt over the figures
He said: “This is sadly not correct. Our positive outcome rate for Nottinghamshire, which includes all detected offences, is currently 15%.
“Nottinghamshire Police is above the national average when it comes to charging suspects and sits higher in both volume and percentage than other forces in the region for both charges and positive outcomes.
“We work incredibly hard to ensure we do everything possible to get justice for victims of crime. “However, we will never be complacent and are always looking at new ways to ensure we can support victims and ensure we get a positive outcome.
“There are many reasons why a crime can be filed as unsolved. This can be because there is insufficient evidence to prosecute a suspect, or even because a victim or witness does not wish to support a prosecution. “
He added: “We are committed to ensuring that we comply with the National Crime Recording Standard so crimes are recorded correctly and investigated appropriately.
“A high number of calls reporting crimes are received into our control room every day.
“Each one of them is subject to a threat, harm and risk assessment.”
Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry said: “Nottinghamshire Police is performing significantly higher than the national average across all police forces in terms of the rate of crimes which result in a charge or summons (8.06% compared to the national average of 5.7%). We are also one of the best performing forces in our ‘most similar force’ group for both sexual offences and robbery in this measure.
“This is something I am keen to see continuing to improve as part of my work to scrutinise the force on behalf of the public, through my Accountability Board and other ongoing scrutiny panels.
“However, it is far too simplistic to look at whether a crime has resulted in a charge or a summons as the only yardstick of success.
“In many cases – particularly for serious crimes – a charge is clearly the most appropriate outcome. But it is not always the best outcome for all crimes. Often a caution, a fine or a community resolution is a better use of taxpayers’ money than dragging a remorseful first-time offender through the courts for a low-level offence, for example.
“The force has also seen an increased use of out-of-court disposals over the last year as part of a move to a more progressive public health approach to tackling crime where partner agencies work together to tackle the root causes rather than waiting for behaviours to escalate over time.
“This includes using educational, diversionary and intervention activities which have a better long-term outcome for public safety as it challenges and changes behaviours and prevents the cycle of reoffending that we often see when people go through the courts time and time again without any support to break the loop.
“The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Violence Reduction Partnership commission a wide range of services which are designed to prevent reoffending and improve public safety for the long term. These include the Restorative Nottinghamshire service and the Another Way programme to name just a few.”
What a load of crapp. The Conservative mp has only been in since the last election. The local council has been Labour controlled for over a decade and cllr Payne is the deputy leader.
Tory Government cuts to the police, the local council and other public bodies has made Gedling a hot bed for criminals. Conservative MP Tom Randall is not interested in stopping criminals and more interested in voting against kids getting school meals. We need a change of MP and a change of Government ASAP!