The pandemic has intensified vulnerability for certain people,
and combined with failing public services, this has increased
demand on the police, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of
Constabulary has said.
In his annual assessment of policing in England and Wales, Sir
Thomas Winsor described how crime patterns have changed over the
last year, with more crime committed online. He said there is a
case for greater sanctions in the Online Safety Bill to protect
vulnerable people online (page 21).
The Chief Inspector said the pandemic had also increased
vulnerability in other ways, such as the lockdown leading to more
calls for help from those suffering from domestic abuse (page
21).
In his 2020 report, Sir Thomas Winsor said some public services,
including mental health, keep on failing (page 25). Unless the
health and social care system is fixed and people can get the
support they need, more people will continue to be vulnerable and
enter the criminal justice system unnecessarily, he said (page
26).
The Chief Inspector recognised that the chronic backlog in court
cases has increased as a result of the pandemic, but he
questioned why waiting times have become inexcusably long when
the number of cases going into the system is at the lowest level
for decades (page 29).
Sir Thomas Winsor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of
Constabulary said:
“The pandemic provided new opportunities for criminals and showed
how essential it is that our public services work well together.
It is highly regrettable that new legislation and lockdown
restrictions made certain people more vulnerable and limited
access to support services. As a result, many more people may
have been suffering, and this will have led to increased demand
on the police.
“For policing to be effective, the wider criminal justice system
and other public services must also be as effective as possible.
If they are not, many more people may be drawn to crime, enter
into cycles of offending, become victims, and lose confidence in
policing.
“I am disappointed on behalf of the public that so little has
been done to fix the perilous state of the criminal justice
system and failing mental health services. The Government’s next
spending review will provide an opportunity to put right many of
the problems in policing, and the other public sector agencies
must do much more to match the commitment of the police service
to protecting people from harm.”
The Chief Inspector said the planned recruitment of an additional
20,000 police officers by 2023 is undoubtedly a good thing, but
it also heightens the danger that people unsuited to policing –
including those with extremist or racist views – may be recruited
(pages 35-36).
Sir Thomas Winsor said the quality of vetting needs, therefore,
to be consistently high, and Directorates of Professional
Standards should be staffed by some of the best detectives (page
36).
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The State of Policing 2020 will be published on the HMICFRS
website at 13:00 on Wednesday 21 July 2021.
