'Police are unable to visit 40% of crime victims because of a fog of administration', says chief constable

Four in ten victims of crime are not visited by a police officer, a chief constable has admitted.

Matt Baggott, who is the country's most senior officer for neighbourhood policing, blamed a 'fog of over-supervision and administration'. 

The Leicestershire chief constable said: 'We do not have the time to do our jobs properly.

'There are no excuses about money. This is about leadership.' 

He believes every victim should receive a police visit. But critics say many forces no longer attend the scenes of minor crimes, such as theft or vandalism. 

Mr Baggott is the first officer to place a figure on the number of incidents that are simply investigated over the phone, with the victim being handed a crime number to give to their insurer. 

He told a conference in London: 'At the moment we do not visit 40 per cent of crime victims. 

'We are not dealing with the moment of misery in their life thoroughly.' 

He fears that this approach will make it harder to find out how crimes were able to take place and whether there were any other problems in the neighbourhood. 


This has a knock-on effect on public trust in policing. 

According to research conducted for Mr Baggott, for every negative experience of the police, officers must do 14 positive acts locally to repair the damage to their reputation.

He urged officers to free themselves from red tape and targets by engaging in 'structured anarchy' - challenging excessive bureaucracy to persuade policy-makers to scrap it. 

He wants constables to have the same freedoms as GPs, who do not need permission from superiors to write prescriptions or decide how to treat patients. 

At present, junior officers have to check their actions with sergeants. 

Mr Baggott also wants all criminals to be met at the prison gates to dissuade the 70 per cent who reoffend from doing so. 

He said they should be placed under such close supervision that they could not commit any more crimes. Former Police Federation chairman Jan Berry, who now works as a red tape tsar for the Home Office, backed Mr Baggott's comments. 

She said: 'We have got too many people complying with sets of rules that are doing nothing for neighbourhood safety.' 


She added there was a danger of 'losing the momentum' in tackling red tape and targets since a report into slashing bureaucracy by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, was published earlier this year. 

Mr Baggott's comments follow a damning report by the Civitas thinktank warning that the middle classes have lost confidence in the police. 

The study found responses to crimes such as burglary were slow and statements given by victims of serious crime were often left lying idle for months. 

Last month, it emerged that complaints against police officers in England and Wales had risen to record levels.  continues here

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