- Average of 200 bike thefts a day where culprit was not apprehended, party says
Bike theft has effectively been ‘decriminalised’ as more than 365,000 cases went unsolved in the last five years, the Lib Dems claimed last night.
Official crime data showed an average of 200 bicycle thefts a day took place in which no culprit was apprehended, the party said.
The 365,706 unsolved crimes since 2019 amounted to 89 per cent of all bike thefts over the period. Only two per cent of cases – 8,437 incidents – led to a suspect being charged.
The Liberal Democrats called for a return to ‘proper community policing’.
The party’s home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael MP said: ‘These shocking figures will leave people wondering if bike theft has been decriminalised.
Around 89 per cent of all bike thefts, over 395,000 in total in the last five years, remain unsolved
‘Whether it’s used for commuting, family days out or exercise, people’s bikes are a hugely valued possession.
‘So bike thefts leave victims feeling both out of pocket and distressed, and knowing the thief will probably get away with it just adds salt into the wound.’
He added: ‘Years of neglect under this Conservative government have emboldened criminals and left frontline police officers without the resources they need to investigate crimes like bike theft properly.
‘The government needs to restore community policing where police are visible in their neighbourhoods and can focus on solving local crimes.’
Last week the Daily Mail revealed that police abandon investigations into four crimes every minute without tracking down the culprits.
The number of inquiries closed by officers without identifying a suspect has rocketed by nearly 250,000 year-on-year.
Forces gave upon investigations into 2,306,623 reported crimes in the year to June, including hundreds of thousands of violent offences and burglaries, up 13 per cent on the previous 12 months.
The official Home Office figures are equivalent to more than 6,300 every day on average, or one every 14 seconds.
They prompted serious questions about whether the taxpayer is getting value for money for the multi-billion-pound sums injected into policing by the Government.
The Home Office’s ‘police uplift’ programme saw the number of officers in England and Wales jump from 129,110 at the end of March 2020 to 147,430 in March last year.
The Home Office spent £3.6billion up to last March on an election pledge to hire 20,000 police officers, and it expects to spend a further £18.5billion on the wage bill over the next decade.
Just before Christmas, the Home Office also announced that police funding from central government will increase by £843million to £18.4billion in the next financial year – a rise of 30.7 per cent in cash terms on the 2019-20 figure.
Crime data showed that there was an average of 200 bike thefts a day where no culprit was apprehended, the Lib Dems said
Police minister Chris Philp said: ‘The Liberal Democrats could never be trusted to cut crime or keep communities safe.
‘They want to strip our police officers of vital powers and voted against tougher sentences for the worst offenders.
‘The Conservatives have cut the number of theft offences by 47 per cent since 2010 including bicycle theft by 54 per cent, reduced violent crime by 52 per cent, and put a record number of police officers on our streets to keep our communities safe.
‘While the Liberal Democrats shout from the sidelines, we are taking the difficult, long-term decisions to cut crime and keep people safe.’
