Police 'under-recording serious crime'
Serious crime rose 26 per cent between April and June
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Thursday, 23, Oct 2008 08:08
Serious crime has risen by 22 per cent official figures show, after the Home Office admitted that some police forces had been under-recording crime in their areas.
Crime statistics released today for the period between April and June show the most serious violent crime dramatically rose compared to last year, after the figures were reclassified.
Speaking on the BBC, home secretary Jacqui Smith refused to name the 13 police forces which had been wrongly classifying serious crime or how long it had been going on.
Ms Smith said the Home Office had decided to look in detail at how the elements of violent crime were recorded.
She said the government was "concerned about serious violence", explaining "that's why we went back to make sure we were counting it properly".
Overall, crime was down six per cent during the period, with violent crime down seven per cent.
There were almost 18,000 fewer violent crimes compared to the same period last year and a 22 per cent in firearm offences.
In a pre-prepared statement from the Home Office, Ms Smith added: "Last year we reduced police targets to give them greater flexibility to deal with local crime problems and to prioritise tackling most serious violence.
"We revised offence categories for recording the most serious violence and clarified our guidance to police forces. This change means that this quarter's figures are not comparable with last year's."
Keith Bristow, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead for violence and public protection and Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police responded to today's statistics, stating: "The impact of changes made to the way in which some crime is recorded will make uncomfortable reading.
"Apparent increases in some categories of violent crime are strongly influenced by these counting amendments which were introduced by the Home Office in April 2008. ACPO supported the amendments to the counting arrangements as these changes will improve our understanding of neighbourhoods affected by crime."
Shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, however, attacked the government over the recording of violent crime.
"These figures fatally undermine government spin that violent crime was getting better and betray a government that is completely out of touch with what is going on, on our streets and in our communities," he said.
"Labour's target driven approach has simply been to manipulate the statistics. They should now face up to the reality of their failure and realise that if you can't count a problem, you can't combat it. In any event serious violent crime would still have increased before miscounting was revealed."