Brickbat: By the Numbers

Christian Delbert / Dreamstime.com

Scotland Yard reports just 5.5 percent of burglary reports in the United Kingdom between April 2017 and April 2018 resulted in an arrest. And police made arrests in just 7 percent of robberies reported in that period. In defense of the police, Chief Constable Bill Skelly, a spokesman for the the National Police Chiefs' Council, says that those numbers include many crimes in which there is "no suspect and little prospect of a criminal justice outcome."

Comments

[Live Free Or Diet]

Also, the Inspector General has complained for decades the UK cooks their crime numbers. It hurts tourism, which they are very dependent on. That's why he can't get any leverage for real reform.

[loveconstitution1789]

The Brits will never admit they cook the books or steer their law enforcement to protect tourism, visiting businessmen, and thousands of immigrants who refuse to assimilate.

[Cy]

How dare you! With all of the immigrants the UK is taking in, they're going to have a booming economy and overtake the US in GDP in no time! Don't criticize your betters! So it is written....

[Rat on a train]

They are clearly focusing on the crimes that matter. They solve 99% of hate speech crimes.

[sarcasmic]

I know several people who have called the police about property crimes. Not one was solved, or even investigated for that matter. However they will chase down any speeder or druggie they can find, because that brings in revenue. But crimes with victims? Not so much.

[loveconstitution1789]

Police could use DNA and fingerprint collection techniques to potentially catch the criminal who stole.

Police just refuse to spend the resources to do that. As you say, police would rather use resources to go after drug users and sellers and steal property under asset forfeiture.

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

What do you expect them to do? Even they don't have guns.

[sarcasmic]

Real life isn't CSI. Turns out most forensic "science" is utter bullshit. There are other ways to catch thieves and such. Like checking pawn shops for the stolen goods. But that is work, and it's not like they get to keep the stuff that was stolen. So they don't bother.

Sometimes I wonder if, because cops rob and assault people for a living, they don't consider such things to be crimes.

[Wizard4169]

Of course those things are crimes, when it's not the cops doing them. Rackets don't like competition.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Chief Constable Bill Skelly, a spokesman for the the National Police Chiefs' Council, says that those numbers include many crimes in which there is "no suspect and little prospect of a criminal justice outcome."

Clearly.

You could always let the populace defend themselves against robbers.

I wonder what the clearance rate is on hate speech crimes. Probably a bit higher since no real police work is involved.

[loveconstitution1789]

Crimes against the Crown have always had a high clearance rate and were low on civil rights.

[Wizard4169]

What insanity! Are you trying to encourage vigilantism? We can't have people taking the law into their own hands!

Seriously, in the current-day UK, it seems to be easier to get arrested for resisting a crime than for committing one.

[loveconstitution1789]

Instead the British police make sure no law abiding people have knives, guns, or anything to protect themselves from criminals.

Instead the British police make sure people don't speak their minds on the internet.

Instead the British police make sure people don't leave the country with their child to get medical that might save the kids life.

Instead British police makes sure that people don't report on immigrant rape crimes being tried in court.

Britain is living proof of the Founding Fathers desire to prevent government tyranny by protecting the right to keep and bear Arms (2nd Amendment), the protections of the 1st Amendment, the protects of the 10th Amendment, and right to public trial (6th Amendment).

[Cy]

I'm sure those people are glad they aren't armed while they're being robbed, raped and beaten.

[Ben of Houston]

Does anyone have an equivalent statistic for any American state?

[Cy]

It's hard to get an apples to apples comparison because of how other countries report and log their crime. Also, as someone else pointed out, there are a lot of countries/cities who depend on tourism, so they skew the numbers to avoid being seen as dangerous.

[loveconstitution1789]

Property crimes are rarely solved as evidenced by the number of criminal prosecutions for thefts which is low in the USA.

Pew Research property crime stats

Police solving property crimes requires real police work and most police agencies are not willing to commit those kinds of resources. Police tend to solve thefts when they catch someone with some stolen property that can be traced back to the owner. Its more luck than hard work.

[sarcasmic]

Even something as simple as calling local pawn shops would catch a shitload of thieves, but the cops won't even bother with that.

[Longtobefree]

"comedian Michael McIntyre was robbed of his watch in a violent incident earlier this month."

Further proof of the effectiveness of gun control in stopping violence.
Repeal the second amendment at once!

Welcome to the revolution.

[El Oso]

With numbers like that, Scotland Yard may as well be disbanded...

[PaulTheBeav]

I bet the odds are much better if you have security cameras.

[Wizard4169]

I doubt it. If more cameras were the answer, London should be crime-free by now.

[markm23]

Security cameras are not always effective even solving crimes. In London, security cameras recorded a jogger who pushed a woman off the sidewalk in front of a bus. After investigating 50-some suspects, the police recently closed the case unsolved.