Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will call time on unacceptable delays which can mean perpetrators and witnesses have disappeared when officers arrive at the scene
Police will be ordered to arrive at crime scenes in 15 minutes in cities and towns or 20 minutes in the countryside to end lengthy waits for victims.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will call time on unacceptable delays which can mean perpetrators and witnesses have disappeared when officers arrive at the scene. Forces will also be ordered to answer 999 phone calls within 10 seconds under a radical blueprint for policing unveiled today.
Crack teams will be sent into failing forces to drive up standards when response times aren’t met. Under the current system, response time data is collected in a patchwork of different ways – and police are not held accountable if they miss targets.
It comes amid an epidemic of crimes like shoplifting, drug dealing, phone theft and anti-social behaviour which creates misery in communities. Shop theft has risen by 72% since 2010 and street theft is up by 58%, according to the Home Office.
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Ms Mahmood said: “Everyday crimes are on the rise across the country and too often there seem to be no consequences. People are reporting crimes and then waiting hours or even days for a response.
“By the time the police arrive, the perpetrators and witnesses are long gone. I will restore neighbourhood policing and scale up patrols in communities to catch criminals and cut crime.”
John Hayward-Cripps, Chief Executive of Neighbourhood Watch, said poor response times have damaged public trust in the police. He said: “It’s a very basic expectation that police will respond when you report a crime, and quickly when it is serious. When that doesn’t happen, it’s not just frustrating, it is very stressful and it damages trust. The data shows that there is real variation in how well different forces respond to incidents.”
He added: “The Government introducing national standards and, crucially, the resource required to meet them is a welcome step forward. But restoring confidence won’t happen overnight, the police need to take the time to engage meaningfully with their communities too, which most of them are doing.”
James Lowman, Chief Executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, said: “Retailers should be confident that when they report a crime, it will be investigated, repeat offenders will be identified and effective penalties applied.
“The measures announced today, alongside the wider changes coming in the Crime and Policing Bill, need to deliver more effective neighbourhood policing and more of these repeat offenders being brought to justice.”
The move comes as part of a package of reforms unveiled today, billed as the biggest shake-up to policing in decades. The Home Secretary is expected to slash the number of police forces in England and Wales down from 43 in a radical restructuring of the service.
Ms Mahmood, who is believed to be alarmed by the lack of accountability, will order forces to publish an online dashboard to show how they are performing on key priorities, including 999 response times, neighbourhood team sizes and solving crimes.
The Home Secretary will have a new power to send in specialist teams to turn around failing forces, and will be able to sack chief constables. It comes after she was unable to fire West Midlands boss Craig Guildford, who presented incorrect information to MPs on the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa. He made the decision to retire days after she declared she had no confidence in him.
The policing white paper, to be unveiled today, is expected to include measures to improve police vetting. Recruits with a caution or conviction for violence against women and girls will be barred and stronger requirements to suspend officers accused of crimes will be introduced.
Red tape keeping officers chained to their desks will be ripped up to put more bobbies on the beat. And a named, contactable officer will be put in every council ward in an extension of an existing pledge to beef up neighbourhood policing.