Arrests of suspected criminals halve in a decade

Arrests by police of suspected criminals have halved in a decade despite the number of officers hitting a record high, according to an analysis of official data.

The number of arrests by officers of suspected offenders have fallen from 1.4 million just over a decade ago to 668,979 in 2023.

That equates to a drop from an average of 9.6 arrests per officer in a year to just 4.5 – and as low as just 2.8 in the worst-performing force, the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest constabulary.

That is despite the number of police officers hitting a record high of more than 147,000, some 3,000 more than there were in 2010, a previous peak under the last Labour Government.

The fall mirrors a sharp decline in the overall number of offences resulting in a suspect being charged. That proportion has more than halved from 15.5 per cent in 2015 to below six per cent.

Criminal justice experts have blamed greater use of out-of-court punishments such as community orders rather than charging a suspect, a shift to more alleged offenders voluntarily attending police interviews and the rise of more complex crimes such as sex offences and fraud.

Dame Vera Baird, the former victims’ commissioner who led an investigation into low charging rates for Labour, said she suspected it also reflected a loss of confidence in the criminal justice system that meant more victims were withdrawing from cases and officers being frustrated by court delays.

“The fact that the decline extends across the country makes me feel it is a failure borne of desperation with the criminal justice system,” she said. “I suspect that it’s a push back against the criminal justice system that makes it less realistic to take people to court and secure justice.”

The data showed wide variations, ranging from Cleveland where there were 7.9 arrests per officer, compared to just 2.8 in London. Lancashire has seen its rate plummet from 11.7 to 3.3, the largest in the country, whilst Cheshire’s fell by just a quarter from 8.8 to 6.6.

Rory Geoghegan, a former Downing Street adviser on crime and a former police officer, blamed a change in the rules introduced under the coalition government that encouraged voluntary questioning of suspects rather than putting them through the stigma of arrest.

“The large drop in arrests can be linked to judgements and decisions taken in the 2010s that favoured the suspected criminal over the law abiding public,” said Mr Geoghegan, founder of the Public Safety Foundation.

“Human rights concerns about the ‘proportionality’ and ‘necessity’ of arresting suspected criminals conspired with budget cuts under the coalition government, causing arrests to fall and many local custody suites to close.”

Some 145,000 people who would have previously been arrested are now voluntarily questioned. It has coincided with a dramatic increase in the number of sexual offences and fraud, from 4.3 million in 2009/10 to 6.7 million in 2023/24 which take longer to investigate.

Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation think tank, said: “If the composition of reported crime shifts to sexual offences and cyber crime that are hard to investigate then your arrest rate will fall. It’s relatively straightforward to investigate burglaries, car thefts and so on. But these now make up much less of reported crime.

“In addition we have seen much greater use of diversion and deferred prosecution schemes and community resolutions particularly in relation to young and first time offenders. This is to prevent these children and young people from getting sucked into a life of crime by diverting them towards some form of programme at the point of their first offence.”

The number of young people entering the criminal justice system has fallen from 30,000 to 8,400 in a decade, while the number of offenders handed community resolutions which do not require an arrest has jumped from 124,000 to 145,000. Community resolutions only require an offender to admit guilt and apologise to their victim to avoid a criminal record.

Backroom jobs

Although the number of police officers has reached a record high, the number of police staff has remained static which means many officers are covering backroom jobs rather than fighting crime on the frontline.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, blamed the Tories for the slump in arrests and 90 per cent of crimes going unsolved with “more criminals getting off, more victims being let down”.

Ms Cooper said Labour planned to increase the number of neighbourhood officers by 13,000, and to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls in a decade.

“We’re making it the mission to restore confidence in policing and criminal justice. That does mean reform. It also means fundamentally getting neighbourhood police back on the streets, back in our communities,” she said.