From: "John Hurst", [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. Chaotic police records hide true extent of crimewave BY STEWART TENDLER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT CRIME figures are at least 20 per cent higher than those recorded by the police, according to an independent report due to be published soon. Hundreds of thousands of offences, including assaults, burglaries and car crime, are being excluded from national crime figures because of police inefficiency and bureaucracy. The Inspectorate of Constabulary's report, described by police sources as "explosive", provides the first comprehensive examination of crime recording in England and Wales and raises fresh doubts about the accuracy of current statistics. It also threatens to undermine the central thrust of Jack Straw's policy to improve police performance. That is based on setting demanding targets for cutting particular crimes and publishing figures for individual divisions. Ministers are already vulnerable over law and order and have had to bring forward the release of the latest crime figures after being accused of trying to bury bad news by publishing them on the same day as the Comprehensive Spending Review. The new figures will show that crime has risen by 4 per cent from 5.2 million offences to about 5.4 million in the year to March. If crime levels were really 20 per cent higher than that, it would take the total to at least 6.4 million - and the Conservatives are bound to seize upon the discrepancy. The inspectorate report, On the Record, found inconsistency between forces over the way crimes are recorded and demanded that the 43 forces agree a national system for recording offences. It did not conclude that forces were deliberately attempting to massage crime figures down, but blamed the current police habit of downgrading crimes by, for example, listing attempted burglaries as vandalism. The report also recommends that victims, and not the police, should confirm the nature of crimes. It says that too many decisions on whether a crime had taken place were left to individual officers and that there were too many differences between forces on the categories under which offences should be recorded. The inspectorate report is backed by a second unpublished study by the consultants Morgan, Harris and Burrows which was commissioned by the Home Office several years ago. That report also found shortfalls in the way forces recorded crime, with some divisions under-reporting by even more than 20 per cent. Chief constables have been alerted to the report's controversial findings and are considering adopting a uniform policy for recording offences. Home Office crime figures are based on crimes recorded under categories set by Whitehall. Over the 1990s, recorded crime fell steadily, but the British Crime Survey of victims' experiences has consistently shown that crime was still rising until last year. A crime researcher said the shortfall came as no surprise. Officers were under pressure and may want to avoid recording a minor crime that would produce considerable paperwork. One said "If a handbag was reported missing should it be regarded as a crime?" "One must realize that the world is a network of real and virtual combat zones where the stakes are high, struggle is the primary mode of being and only total victory is acceptable." -- Sun Tzu, "The Art Of War" Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
