For Suella Braverman, the two officers she met in Greater Manchester this week symbolise the approach to policing she is planning to roll out nationwide. Local intelligence from the officers’ contacts in the neighbourhood had identified a suspected drug dealer operating out of a community centre in the heart of the city. “Through some concerted work over a series of months, they focused on that person, they monitored him and they were able to arrest and charge him with quite serious offences,” s
Police must investigate every theft. This is the message from the Home Secretary as the government heralds an agreement from all 43 police forces in England and Wales to follow up on any evidence where there is a ‘reasonable line of enquiry’. In practice, that means the police should investigate low-level crimes such as stolen
In a few weeks’ time, police across the country will receive a new order: ‘Investigate every crime’. It may not sound like a novel concept, but over the past few years forces – including the Metropolitan Police – have largely given up on low-level crime. Austerity was seen as a reason to ignore burglaries, thefts