“Why we can’t rely on police recorded crime statistics” - report published
9 Apr 2014 12:49 PM
Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair
of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) says: “Poor data
integrity reflects the poor quality of leadership within the police.
Their compliance with the core values of policing, including accountability,
honesty and integrity, will determine whether the proper quality of Police
Recorded Crime data can be restored.”
The
PASC report, Caught Redhanded: Why we can’t rely on
Police Recorded Crime, published today, Wednesday 9th April 2014,
says:
- There is strong evidence that
the police under-record crime, particularly sexual crimes such as rape in many
police areas.
- This is due to “lax
compliance with the agreed national standard of victim-focussed crime
recording.”
- As a result of PASC’s
inquiry, the UK Statistics Authority has already stripped Police Recorded Crime
data of the quality kite mark, “National
Statistics”.
- The Home Office, the Office of
National Statistics and the UK Statistics Authority have all been “far
too passive”.
- Numerical targets drive perverse
incentives to mis-record crime.
- Associated “attitudes and
behaviour... have become ingrained, including within senior police
leadership” raising “broader concerns about policing
values”.
- This presents officers with
“a conflict between achievement of targets and core policing
values.”
- PASC “deprecate the use of
targets in the strongest possible terms” and accuses the police of
adopting a “flawed leadership model, contrary to the policing Code of
Ethics.”
The PASC report
recommends:
- The Home Office should do more
to discourage use of targets.
- The Home Office must take
responsibility and accept accountability for the quality of Police Recorded
Crime Statistics.
- Senior police leaders must
emphasise data integrity and accuracy, not targets.
- They should place new emphasis
on values and ethics, especially in the Metropolitan Police.
- The Home Office should
“clarify the route open to police whistleblowers” and Her
Majesty’s Inspectorate of the Constabulary (HMIC) should investigate the
treatment of key PASC witness police whistleblower PC James
Patrick.
- PASC recommends that “the
Committee on Standards in Public Life conducts a wide-ranging inquiry into the
police’s compliance with the new Code of Ethics; in particular the role
of leadership in promoting and sustaining these values".
Measurement of crime is based on
two main statistical sources: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and
Police Recorded Crime (PRC) data. The CSEW and PRC provide strong evidence that
the overall volume of crime has been falling. However, there is an accumulation
of substantial and credible evidence indicating that the PRC data do not
represent a full and accurate account of crime in England and Wales. The
evidence that the police under records crime may exaggerate the rate of
decrease in crime in some areas and category of crime.
Following the investigation into
the Metropolitan Police Sapphire Unit, PASC says that the need for more
research into variations in the recording of rape across different police
forces is a “damning indictment of police complacency , inertia and lack
of leadership.”
The Committee says that the Home
Office, ONS and UK Statistic Authority have repeatedly missed opportunities to
ensure the integrity and quality of PRC data. It also calls for an
investigation into the treatment of the whistle-blower who sparked the
inquiry.
Some Police and Crime
Commissioners consider the perverse incentives created by targets to be so
serious that they have dropped all targets and the Committee says this should
be extended to all forces.
Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair of the
Committee, said:
“The most depressing part
of this inquiry is the way that the Metropolitan Police appear to have treated
my constituent, PC James Patrick. He says he has been forced to resign from the
Metropolitan. Acting as a whistleblower, he tried to highlight serious
concerns about the validity of crime statistics, and the target culture.
Most police forces are still in denial about the damage targets cause, both to
data integrity and to standards of behaviour.
"We are indebted to PC
Patrick for his courage in speaking out, in fulfilment of his duty to the
highest standards of public service, despite intense pressures to the contrary.
The new police code of ethics places a duty on officers to report misconduct
among their peers: the systems enabling police officers to do this must
be made much clearer and more accessible, and the Home Office must clarify the
route open to police whistleblowers who have exhausted internal channels within
their police forces.
“We asked the Home Office
for this clarification before we finalised our report, but they replied too
late. We have published their response on our website now. We are calling
for HMIC to investigate the Metropolitan Police Service in respect of the
treatment of PC Patrick. We have grave doubts that the Metropolitan Police
Service has treated PC Patrick fairly or with respect and
care.
“Crime statistics are
central to our understanding of the nature and prevalence of crime in England
and Wales. They provide crucial information for the police which helps them to
decide how to deploy their manpower resources. Lax supervision of recorded
crime data risks reducing the police’s effectiveness in their core role
of protecting the public and preventing crime.”