Thousands of Sussex Police investigations dropped due to lack of support from victims
The force is urging people to keep their faith in the criminal justice system
The main reason for Sussex Police taking ‘no further action’ over a crime is a lack of support from the victim, the Police & Crime Commissioner has been told.
Katy Bourne discussed the issue with Deputy Chief Constable Dave McLaren during a performance and accountability meeting
Mr McLaren said that over the last year, 29,000 of the 48,000 investigations described as ‘unsuccessful’ had been because the victim refused to support further action.
He added: “That’s a challenge in itself that in such a large proportion of those cases the victim isn’t supporting us and so there is no reasonable prospect of any conviction.”
One of the reasons for someone refusing to support an investigation is the prospect of having to go through the criminal justice system.
Mr McLaren said: “We’re really keen to encourage the more effective use of out of court resolutions because evidence shows us that’s better for the victim and quite often gets a quicker resolution for the suspect.”
Of the 127,000 crimes in Sussex over the last year where a suspect was identifiable, 15,222 ended with a ‘successful’ result.
That’s around 12% – just under 2% better than the previous year.
Nationally, Sussex Police has moved from being the second worst force in the county for ‘successful outcomes’ – someone is charged etc – to now being out of the bottom quarter.
Mr McLaren said: “It is going in the right direction but as with all things of this nature it can be slow progress at times.”
He added that he had seen ‘a real difference in the force’ over the last eight or nine months when it came to its focus on successful outcomes.
A crime management unit has been introduced which acts as a ‘catch-all’ for checking whether all avenues of investigation have been explored.
And Mr McLaren said the force was trying to get to a point where time could be set aside to give officers the space they needed to carry out investigations.
He added: “We’re looking at how we can better deal with demand as it comes in so that we can do as much as possible of the investigation online or over the phone in the same way that the business crime team do so that we produce packages that then go to the investigation teams for further action.”
Both the force and the Crime Prosecution Service can declare ‘no further action’ on an investigation – though Mr McLaren said the term was ‘not particularly helpful’.
The force prefers ‘detected’ or ‘undetected’ cases – and cases are always open so that if new evidence comes forward it can be investigated.
There are 13 ‘disposal codes’ when an investigation is marked as ‘no further action’.
They include: the offender has died, it would not be in the public interest to take things further, the offender is under 10, the suspect is too ill to prosecute, key witnesses or the victim have died, the victim does not support the investigation, there is a lack of evidence, and the investigation is complete and there are no further lines of inquiry to explore.