Police Arrests Decline by 75,000
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With terror attacks, gang crime and many other devastating acts of violence having occurred in recent months, it may surprise you to know that police forces in England have arrested 75,000 fewer people than in the previous year. Across 43 forces, there was an overall drop in arrests by 7%. At first glance, this does seem to suggest that there has been a decrease in crime over the past year, but is this really the case?
Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, completely disregarded this possibility, stating that, if there has been any significant change, it would be that crime is, in fact, higher but “the cuts the forces have faced in previous years have put a serious strain on resources, meaning there are fewer officers available to respond to incidents”, contributing to this change in figures.
In 2015, there were 949, 526 arrests in total, equivalent to 17 in every 1,000 people, in comparison to over 1 million the previous year. Out of these arrests, 801, 898 were males and only 147,628 were females. While there was a significant increase in arrests relating to robbery or burglary, as well as drugs, there was a decrease in arrests for sexual offences and criminal damage. This information could be particularly beneficial, as it could allow us to address the specific crimes which are causing an issue, rather than addressing the problem of crime as a whole.
Interestingly, as it is often reported that youths are becoming more violent and going against the law, it is important to note that there was a huge decline in arrests of 18-20 year olds, decreasing by almost 20,000. For 10-17 year olds, the number also decreased, from 109,473 to 94,960.
What do you think? Could the police be doing more to arrest those involved in crime, or are they doing as much as they can in the circumstances?