Police ARE too focused on minor crime, admit ministers

Police have been focusing "disproportionately" on minor offenders at the expense of catching serious criminals who pose a danger to the public, ministers admitted yesterday.

The admission confirms the worst fears of critics who say officers - under pressure to hit Government targets - spend too much time handing out on-the-spot fines rather than trapping thugs, burglars and sex attackers.

The Home Office has now issued an explicit order to police forces they must no longer 'pursue detection numbers for numbers' sake' - effectively giving police the green light to stop chasing minor offenders.

An overall target for solving all types of crime has been dumped.

It came after one chief constable refused to set a target for solving 'tick box' low-level crimes.

Martin Richards, of Sussex Police, is instead instructing his officers to concentrate on drugs and violent crime.

Mr Richards said that officers obsessed with hitting targets could sometimes be guilty of not providing the best service to the public.

He added: "In the pursuit of quantity unfortunately quality sometimes suffers."

He excluded the force's overall detection rate from this year's set of performance targets altogether.

In a message sent to his officers, Mr Richards said: "Force performance is about developing and improving our service and not chasing numbers for numbers' sake.

"The most significant omission from the 2008-09 targets is one for an overall detection rate.

"Resolving crimes and incidents remains a fundamental part of our public service mission, but we don't do it to chase statistics and many have told me the overall detection rate focused too much on quantity and not enough on quality."

Confronted with Mr Richards's stand, the Home Office agreed some forces were spending too much time on low-level offences.

Handing out tens of thousands of on-the-spot fines and warnings for cannabis has helped to increase the total number of crimes detected, but around three out of four remain unsolved.

A Home Office statement said: "We recognise that some forces have sought to deliver sanction detection improvements (increasing the number of crimes detected) by focusing disproportionately on low-level offences.

"It is also the case, though, that other forces have delivered improvements through a more balanced and sustainable approach.

"Bringing criminals to justice is a core job for the police, but officers should not pursue detection numbers for numbers' sake if that means chasing minor misdemeanours at the expense of serious offenders."

The overall detection rules, which rank solving a murder in the same way as fining a litter bug, have been blamed for police targeting normally law-abiding citizens.

Ridiculous examples include the case of a man who was cautioned for being 'found in possession of an egg with intent to throw'.

A child was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at another youngster.

Former CID officer Johnno Hills, who quit Sussex Police last year in disgust at the amount of time spent chasing targets, backed the Chief Constable's decision.

Mr Hills, who is now a case worker for the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "I am not saying that detecting crime is not important but as a result of Government targets it led to an over emphasis on crimes that were quick and easy to clear up to the detriment of practical and preventative policing."

The Home Office spokesman said: "The national detection rate is not a target for 2008/9.

"Performance indicators for police for 2008/9 which come into effect from April include measures of the rate of offences brought to justice or serious violent crime, serious sexual offences and serious acquisitive crime.

"This is where the focus lies."