MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – The UK police ask victims to conduct their own inquires, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) reports.
“[Victims] are asked [by UK police] to speak to neighbors, check for CCTV or view second-hand sales websites to see if their stolen property is being advertised for sale”, reads the official report published on HMIC’s website.
HMIC’s announcement comes following an investigation carried out in 43 forces across England and Wales. The investigation found that in 37 forces “a proportion of crimes recorded by the force were dealt with over the telephone”.
“17 forces are failing consistently to identify vulnerable callers as a result of shortcomings in the call-handling and/or record-keeping process”, reads the report of HMIC.
The Independent says there are fears that offenses, such as criminal damage or stolen vehicles, might become decriminalized by police forces which had stopped investigating them.
“It’s more a mindset, that we no longer deal with these things. And effectively what’s happened is a number of crimes are on the verge of being decriminalized”, Roger Baker, a HMIC inspector was quoted by the Independent as saying. “So it’s not the fault of the individual staff, it’s a mindset thing that’s crept into policing to say ‘we’ve almost given up’.”
