South Yorkshire Police 'failing to record 17,000 crimes every year'
Inspectors say victims may not be getting the right support as a result
It's feared vulnerable victims of crime in South Yorkshire are missing out on support because incidents aren't being properly recorded.
Inspectors think police in our county fail to log 17,000 crimes each year but say the force has improved in a lot of areas like recording sexual crimes.
Matt Parr's Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary - he says it's vital people get the right help from support services after they've been a victim:
"Quite often what triggers those victim support services kicking in is the correct recording of the crime. We're not saying that in 17,000 cases there have been a crime and South Yorkshire Police have just ignored it but what we can't do is that say we're satisfied that every victim that they've missed has got the service they deserved.
"Everybody knows that front line police are very busy. They've got a lot on their plate. One of the things we're saying is we recognise that busy police officers are going to make the odd mistake in this kind of thing. But we also think there should be much better supervision of these decisions by the seargents and inspectors."
The Crime Data Integrity report from HMICFRS shows a big improvement in South Yorkshire Police since the last inspection in 2014 with most of the recommendations made 4 years ago being carried out.
But inspectors found many front line officers 'simply did not understand' government rules about recording crimes.
Matt says that's particularly worrying when there are vulnerable victims involved:
"That can be children, that can be vulnerable women who've been the subject of domestic abuse. What we're not saying is that there are these victims who the police are just ignoring completely. What we are saying is: if you don't report the crime properly, you can't be sure the person gets a full range of victim support services.
"When someone reports domestic abuse, the police will turn up - and they do turn up, it's not as if they're ignoring it - but then they'll see the fuss appears to have died down, no obvious sign of any injury and they'll just write it off and they won't record the crime. Now, they should - the Home Office is very clear in its rules - they should be recording that sort of thing."
Assistant Chief Constable Tim Forber said:
“In the recent Crime and Data Integrity Inspection, HMICFRS again found South Yorkshire Police has made significant progress since 2014, and in particular highlighted a victim-focused approach to crime recording. The report found overall levels of crime recording were ‘good’, and both leadership and organisational culture in relation to crime recording were ‘good’.
“We do recognise there is further work to do to eliminate some identified administrative failings. In those highlighted within the report, such as the sexual offence crimes, the majority of these are where a second crime has occurred, but not recorded. Where vulnerable victim crimes were not recorded, safeguarding was still undertaken in all appropriate cases.
“South Yorkshire Police has made a commitment to a victim-focused service and we take these recommendations seriously. A programme of work has already been implemented to deliver improvements we look forward to demonstrate our continued progress at the next inspection."