The latest HMIC inspection report entitled ‘Crime Recording: Making the Victim Count’ published yesterday found that, nationally, over a quarter of sexual offences and a third of violent crime reported to the police each year are not being recorded as crime.
Inspectors examined over 8,000 reports of crime to the police with samples taken from across all 43 forces.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor said: “The first duty of the police is to protect the public and reduce crime. Failure properly to record crime is indefensible. This is not about numbers and dry statistics; it’s about victims and the protection of the public.”
The report follows a detailed reports on each force – including West Yorkshire – which were published in August.
This HMIC report found 23 out of 35 rape inquiries classed were wrongly recorded as “no crime” since October 2011.
The report also revealed the force had failed to record a third of crimes – including rape and robberies in a 12-month period.
Since the findings were published West Yorkshire Police has revealed it has introduced a new process to record crimes at the first point of contact with victims of sexual offence.
