The main reason for Sussex Police taking “no further action” over crime is a lack of support from the victim, the police and crime commissioner has been told.
At a performance and accountability meeting last Friday (May 17), Sussex police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne asked Deputy Chief Constable Dave McLaren about the issue.
Mr McLaren said that over the past year, 29,000 of the 48,000 investigations described as “unsuccessful” had ended because the victim refused to support further action.
He said: “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 – including giving evidence in court and facing cross-examination.
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 past year where a suspect was identifiable, 15,222 ended with a “successful” result.
That’s about 12 per cent – just under 2 percentage points up on the previous year.
Nationally, Sussex Police has moved from being the second worst force in the county for “successful outcomes” – when, for example, someone is charged – 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 past 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 that the force was trying to reach a point where time could be set aside to give officers the space they needed to carry out investigations.
He said: “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 Crown Prosecution Service can declare that a suspect faces “no further action” in relation to an investigation although Mr McLaren said that the term was “not particularly helpful”.
The force, he said, preferred “detected” or “undetected” cases – with cases always remaining open so that if new evidence came to light, it could be investigated.
There were, he said, 13 “disposal codes” when an investigation is marked as “no further action”.
These included the death of a suspect or offender, that 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.
Not suprised as people have lost confidence in the police and the government.