taken, will not be recorded as a second offence of car crime, but as one continuous offence of burglary. Where an up market apartment is broken into, say 10 flats entered and 10 vehicles stolen, this is recorded as one offence of burglary, when in effect 20 offences have been committed. Make no mistake, there are 20 complainants still to see, twenty lots of details to obtain and circulate, one recorded offence.


Through the years, there are numerous examples such as these that have been passed down from above for the front line officer to implement.


CURRENT CRIME FIGURES


It is when the previous year crime figures are examined and then compared to the current recorded crime that some glaringly doubtful statistics are revealed.


Each month, we record the key offence incident numbers for each police force, then add up the totals to see how crime is increasing or decreasing locally and nationally.


Remember the burglary numbers, where up to June 2009, a 2% increase was reported? All the media headlines and insurance company trade press confirms that house burglary and car crime are increasing. So how surprised were we to discover that only five smaller forces report an increase between August & October 2009 and in fact, when added together, the burglary rate has apparently dropped as if by magic across the major forces to -10.16%. This would be applauded loudly, were it not so totally unbelievable. It isn’t as if the forces have achieved a mere 10% reduction, they have taken it from a 2% increase to a 10% reduction in three months. As former police officers, supported with information from the police front line, we’re sure you will understand our skepticism.


The burglary numbers per force can be seen on page 6.


Turning now to All Crime. Only four forces report an increase in crime out of 43. This follows a pattern that has been woven over more than ten years. Remember the earlier table reflecting a 4% crime reduction June 08 to June 09 versus the year before?


Examining current crime, from August through to October 2009, what do you think would be a realistic reduction to expect? We surmised that 4-5% would probably continue. And yet when the total crime figures are added up for the 43 forces of England & Wales, it reflects almost double that figure at 7.8% Are we expected to believe that total crime has reduced so dramatically overall in such a short space of time? We think not.


Car Crime. This old chestnut is the biggest “Fudged Figure” of all. A 10% alleged reduction up to June 2009 has magically increased to 21% in the three months after that. A contributory factor will be that in many forces, car theft is not reported as a crime, merely as an incident in the first instance. For it to become a crime on the books, the victim has to make a written statement, having been first advised to wait a few days in case the vehicle turns up. If it is recovered, hey presto, NO CRIME.


In fact the offence is unauthorised take of a motor vehicle rather than theft, which is used when the car is not recovered. If the car is old and of low value, there are owners no longer report a theft to the police, as it would cost them more in loss of no claims than it would to replace the car. And if the owner does not make a statement, it remains an incident NOT a crime, therefore creating the illusion that car crime is decreasing. We have been told of numerous incidents where officers are advised to report car theft as other theft, when the vehicle has already been recovered. Other theft is a nebulous non specific category, with a higher capacity for manipulation. The Government have spun the web that car crime is falling, it does not want the public to think the trend might be reversing. From our daily experience of the industry, car crime is increasing on a national level.


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