The streets of London need to be “protected” to stop the epidemic of mobile phone thefts, a minister said on Thursday.
Asked about a report that a mobile phone is stolen every six minutes in the capital and that the recovery rate was 1.9 per cent, policing minister Chris Philp said he was “deeply concerned by those figures as a Londoner”.
Speaking on LBC Radio, he added: “That is precisely why we are recruiting all these extra police officers and once they all through their training, being able to protect the streets to prevent these crimes happening in the first place, and then follow up afterwards....”
Pressed on whether there is currently enough follow-up by police on these crimes, the Croydon South MP added: “I think there is more we can do.
“One of the reasons why I was keen to sort out these problems with the bureaucracy, and the form filling, and to lift that burden off policing, is to free up time to spend on follow-up.
“Once we have done this, one of the challenges I will be putting to policing, is to say that with all the extra police officers, with the removal of these bureaucratic burdens which are worth nearly half a million hours a year, I expect and the public expects obviously more visible policing, which is preventative and reassures the public and I expect more to do be done on follow-up.”
The Government says that cuts to "unnecessary red tape" will see the police spending less time recording rude but non-threatening messages and more time investigating crime on the streets.
The move is part of a wider set of rule changes to how forces record crime, aimed at freeing up police time.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said a review of productivity has found that 443,000 officer hours are spent filling in forms and dealing with unnecessary administrative tasks, equivalent to attending 220,000 domestic abuse incidents or 270,000 burglaries.
The Home Office said officers should be on the streets investigating crimes such as burglary, rather than investigating comments made online.
The Government said the changes will come into effect in the coming weeks, and follow recommendations from review by the NPCC lead for crime data integrity, Chris Rowley.
Chair of the NPCC Gavin Stephenson said: "Police officers must be totally focused on keeping people safe and ensuring they feel safe.
"We want to provide the best possible policing to the public and the work of the police productivity review is aimed at removing barriers and improving effectiveness.”
But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: "This announcement is simply too little, too late. People are losing confidence in the police because of Conservative mismanagement."
He added: "The Conservatives are failing to tackle crime and people up and down the country know this announcement will make little difference to that.”
