Police

Force exposed as having a higher rate of ‘no crimes’ than other police forces

A REVIEW into the way Kent Police records crime has exposed the high rate of incidents dismissed as ‘no crimes’.

The report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found the county’sforce had a higher rate of ‘no crime’ than other forces in the country. This is when a recorded incident is logged as ‘no crime committed’.

Last year, the force came under fire after figures released by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) revealed that 30 per cent of rape claims in Kent – the highest in the country – fell into the ‘no crime’ category.

Campaigners from the Women Against Rape charity said it sent out a “terrible message” to victims.

The latest findings showed ‘no crimes’ were still prevalent, but a spokeswoman at Kent Police said it was in no-one’s interest to waste time on cases where a crime had not been committed.

She gave examples of when ‘no crimes’ had been recorded, including a case where a person who had called police to report their car had been stolen from a car park, had called back saying they had found it.

The spokeswoman said: “(In another case) a report was received that a ‘victim’ had left their mobile telephone on a table in a public room in a hotel and that it had been stolen.

“Subsequently, the telephone was returned to them having been found by a resident in the hotel who had removed it for safe keeping.”

But the HMIC report noted a high rate of ‘no crimes’ and said researchers had looked at how often a record that had initially been recorded as a crime was subsequently reviewed and de-classified.

“The force has a higher rate of ‘no crimes’ than other forces. This means that Kent Police may be under-recording crime when compared to others.”

The report, however, praised the force’s accurate recording of crimes, its good standard of recorded information and its victim-focused approach to crime recording.

The Kent Police spokeswoman defended the high ‘no crime’ rate stating the report was based on a small sample size.

“We are pleased that the HMIC recognises that Kent Police places a strong emphasis on recording quality data,” she said.

“It is in no-one’s interest that time is wasted on cases where a crime has not been committed and we are pleased that HMIC has specifically praised our victim-focused approach to crime recording, and our particular efforts with repeat and vulnerable victims such as the disabled or the elderly.”