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There was another programme about the police being in crisis, on TV recently. It raises some interesting questions, which is why so few burglaries, rapes and car thefts are being investigated these days, while the number of prosecutions for online offences does not appear to be going down.
The head of the NPCC said that the police have to deal with a whole host of new online offences nowadays, in addition to the 'old' types of crime that we are familiar with, which traditionally used to take up most police time.
So there are now more ways to commit crime, thanks to the internet and we know that more, otherwise law abiding citizens, are now committing crimes online, whereas in the past, these individuals would have never come into contact with the police and would have lead blameless lives.
Add to that an increase in the population of 10 million people over the last twenty years and its inevitable that there will be more crimes being committed overall. At the same time as the amount of crime has been growing, the number of police has been reduced, so quite clearly, they have had to prioritise some offences and downgrade others. So why have car theft, burglary and rape all been de-prioritised?
I suspect it is all due to evidential concerns. Online offences are much easier to prove than offline offences, because all the evidence can be easily found on the person's phone, or laptop. There is no need to do the hard, manpower intensive, work of tracking down and interviewing witnesses anymore. No need to prove motive or intent. The digital evidence is enough on its own, to secure a conviction.
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