Police were urged to get back to their ‘core mission’ yesterday after new figures revealed record levels of shoplifting, rising knife crime and robberies despite 20,000 new officers joining the ranks.
Chief constables face questions about policing priorities after official data revealed nearly 6,000 crimes went unsolved every day last year, with 40 per cent of all recorded crimes going unpunished.
The alarming figures come a year after forces made unprecedented pledges to investigate reasonable lines of inquiry in every crime and visit every single burgled home after a national uplift programme delivered an extra 20,000 officers.
Yet despite all the promises and new recruits, the latest figures suggest that thousands of people are still being denied justice every day.
According to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales is at the highest level in 20 years.
Footage filmed earlier this year shows a group of men brazenly grabbing goods from a Boots store in north London before loading them into bags in front of shocked shoppers (file photo)
A staggering 469,788 offences were logged in the year to June 2024, which is up 29 per cent on the 365,173 recorded in the previous 12 months.
That equates to 54 raids an hour.
The number of thefts from the person has also surged by 20 per cent to 139,368 offences, the highest number recorded since April 2002.
At the same time, robberies have risen by six per cent to 81,931 in a year, and robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument were also up 11 per cent in the period.
There was an increase in overall knife crime by four per cent to 50,973 offences, which is an average of 140 incidents every day.
David Spencer, Head of Crime and Justice at Policy Exchange: said ‘Today’s crime figures show the impact of the police being too often distracted from their core mission of fighting crime. For the sake of the law-abiding majority, the focus of the Government, police and wider criminal justice system should be on putting those prolific offenders responsible behind bars for as long as necessary to keep our streets safe.’
Paddy Lillis, Usdaw General Secretary said retailers were facing a crime ‘epidemic’: ‘It is increasingly common for retail stores to be targeted by organised crime gangs stealing to order.
‘This is in no way a victimless crime, with weapons and violence used to ensure these criminals are not stopped.
Almost 444,000 shoplifting offences were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months
Footage shows a brave Poundland employee grappling with a shoplifter in a store at Westway Cross Shopping Park in Greenford (file photo)Â
Phone footage shows young shoplifters battling past staff to steal trainers from a Nike shop in the shadows of Wembley Stadium (file photo)Â
‘This 29 per cent increase in theft from shops is further evidence that we are facing an ongoing epidemic of retail crime, which is hugely concerning.’
Separate Home Office figures published yesterday show a growth in the number of cases being dropped due to ‘no suspect being identified’ from 39.3 per cent to 40.2 per cent.
Despite police forces agreeing to go out to every residential burglary, the number of burglary charges have slipped from 9,806 in the year ending March 2023 to 9,741 this year.
Yesterday Tory leadership hopeful and former Home Office minister Robert Jenrick said: ‘The previous Conservative Government delivered 20,000 extra officers and mandated police forces to attend all domestic burglaries. It’s really disappointing to see the charge rate for burglaries fall for such a pernicious and destructive crime. It raises big questions about how the police are spending their time.’
Overall, the proportion of suspects charged or summonsed for all crime types has crept up slightly from 5.7pc to 6.4pc, but the figures show that most perpetrators escape justice.
In total 2,156,075 crimes went unsolved across England and Wales in the year ending June 2024, equivalent to 5,907 crimes every day.
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Lisa Smart MP said: ‘This is the Conservative’s legacy of failure on crime. Thousands of victims left without the justice they deserve every single day, thanks to years of Conservative incompetence and neglect.
‘Things cannot continue like this. Our communities deserve to feel safe – and that includes being confident that if you’re the victim of a crime, the police will turn up and properly investigate.’
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson blamed the previous Government: ‘Today’s statistics show the scale of the challenge we have inherited in our mission to make streets safer.
Too many town centres have been decimated by record levels of shoplifting, and communities have been left shaken by rising levels of knife crime, snatch theft and robbery. This cannot continue.
‘This Government will restore neighbourhood policing across the country, put thousands more dedicated officers out on our streets and scrap the £200 shoplifting threshold, bringing an end to the effective impunity for thieves who steal low value goods.’