Over half of criminal damage reports went unattended by police in 2023

EMBARGO: 00.01 Monday 20th May

A new investigation by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that nearly 130,000 criminal damage reports across England and Wales went unattended by the police in 2023.

The data was uncovered by a series of Freedom of Information requests to all police forces in England and Wales. 

Criminal damage cases include intentional and malicious damage to people’s homes, vehicles, or other property. 

Of the 27 forces who provided responses, a shocking 129,302 reports of criminal damage did not have a police officer arrive at the scene - accounting for 53% of all cases. 

The figures also revealed a disturbing postcode lottery, with staggering differences in attendance rates across different police forces. The worst performing force was Greater Manchester, where 81% of criminal damage reports went unattended by police. Avon & Somerset also fared poorly, with 79% of cases going unattended. In contrast, only 7% of criminal damage reports went unattended in Cleveland. 

Despite the Government’s August 2023 announcement that police should properly investigate all crimes with a reasonable lead, the number of unattended criminal damage cases has only fallen by a measly 2% since 2022. 9 police forces have even seen their number of unattended cases rise in that time period.

The Liberal Democrats have blamed the Conservative Government for these shocking figures, arguing that years of using policing resources ineffectively have left local forces overstretched, under-resourced, and unable to respond to neighbourhood crime. 

This includes taking over 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015, and assigning just 12% of officers to neighbourhood policing teams. 

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing - where officers are visible, trusted, with the time and resources to focus on solving and preventing crime. 

Commenting on the figures, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: 

“Across the country thousands of people are seeing their homes and vehicles damaged by vandalism, only for those responsible to get away with it.

“To think that an officer isn’t even showing up at the scene of the crime in most of these cases is outrageous. Yet this is the consequence of Conservative ministers decimating our frontline policing services for years.

“We need a proper return to community policing and more visible officers on our streets. Only then can we give people the security they deserve.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors: 

This data was uncovered by a FOI to all 43 police forces in England. Their responses, which can be accessed here, provided the following data: 

• How many criminal damage incidents were reported to their police force in the following calendar years: 2023, 2022 and 2021. 

• How many of those reports led to a police officer visiting the scene of the incident.

Data on PCSO workforces is available at: Home Office, ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2023: data tables’, Table 3. 

More information on the Government’s announcement from August 2023 on investigating crimes can be found here.