Sir Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said they were only able to “actively pursue” 40 per cent of cases due to priorities.
He claimed that most crimes were committed by a “group of active, persistent offenders who go in and out of the criminal justice system” who officers regularly targeted but in many crimes there was simply not enough evidence to launch an investigation.
Sir Peter made the admission during a public meeting also attended by Tony Lloyd, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester.
Graham Stringer, the MP for Manchester’s Blackley and Broughton constituency, said Sir Peter’s admission would leave many victims of crime angry.
“De-prioritising the majority of crime is bound to lead to a loss of confidence in the police force,” said Mr Stringer.
In a statement released by the Manchester force force, Sir Peter said: “Most crime is committed by a group of active, persistent offenders who go in and out of the criminal justice system.
“So in continuing to reduce crime, we balance between investigating offences after they have happened and targeting those who we know are out there every day, looking for criminal opportunities.
“Some of these we visit twice a day to keep them on their toes. In the same way that the health service concentrates on the most serious illnesses and the treatments likely to have most effect, the police have to concentrate on the most serious crimes and those where there are lines of investigation likely to produce evidence of the offender.
“In practice, this translates into about 40 per cent of crime being actively pursued at any time.
“We look at all crimes to identify patterns of offending and to build the picture of where we need to target police patrols. In many crimes there are no witnesses, no CCTV and no forensic opportunities.”
GMP is overseeing a cost-cutting drive which means they have to find £134m savings by 2015 and it’s led to the loss 2,700 jobs in the force.
In the year up to April, Greater Manchester Police received more than 177,000 reports of crime, so according to Sir Peter’s figures around 106,000 were not investigated.
This is a copy of the full article provided by The Telegraph
