POLICE: Fail to assist victims of crimes, such as rape and sexual offence[GETTY]An inspection of 13 police forces found 14 rapes were among offences that went unrecorded, including an allegation made by a 13-year-old autistic boy which was written off as “sexual experimentation”.
Another rape was not recorded due to “workload pressure” as recording the crime would “entail too much work”, said the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
Each mistake represents a victim losing the chance to get justice
Home Secretary Theresa May said the report exposed “unacceptable failings by the police” and warned that once HMIC concludes its work in October, official figures may show a spike in police recorded crime.
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor said: “The consequences of under-recording crime are serious and may mean victims and the com munity are failed.”
HMIC is inspecting the way all 43 forces in England and Wales record crime data and said that if its findings so far reflect the national picture, it could mean 20 per cent of crimes are unrecorded.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics last week showed police recorded 3.7 million offences in the year to December 2013 – but if HMIC is correct, the real figure could be as high as 4.4 million.
From a sample of 3,102 incidents, HMIC found 2,551 crimes should have been recorded but 523 were not, including sex offences, crimes of violence, robbery and burglary.
Adam Pemberton, of the charity Victim Support, said: “This is about much more than poor numbercrunching.
"Each mistake represents a victim losing the chance to get justice.
“It is unacceptable that victims of any crimes – let alone serious offences such as rape – should have their complaints go unrecorded or downgraded because of police incompetence or even laziness.”
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