BCS crime figures are ‘misleading’ and ‘flawed’

One of Britain’s most senior police officers has admitted official crime figures are “misleading” and “flawed” because they fail to include as many as six out of 10 crimes.

Ian Johnston, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), says the figures used by ministers and police are misleading because they exclude much violent crime and need to be “bolstered” in order to restore public trust.

He said: “People don’t believe what the Government and the police tell them about the crime figures.

“Some of the figures tell the truth and are pretty accurate. But the British Crime Survey [BCS] is inadequate; it’s partially misleading. It doesn’t provide the true scale of crime in the UK.”

Mr Johnston, who is chief constable of the British Transport Police (BTP), said the BCS and official crime statistics needed to be overhauled.

He said the official figures missed out millions of crimes because of “under reporting”. He said the BCS excluded all crimes among those under 16, at least 500,000 according to reliable estimates. Many of those offences include muggings, especially involving the theft of iPods and mobile phones.

“It doesn’t include crimes against people in institutions such as those in university accommodation, old people’s homes and hospitals,” he said.

Mr Johnston said he had repeatedly raised the problem with ministers and officials, but no action had been taken.

He said he agreed with the findings of an independent review in 2006 of crime statistics, which found that 60 per cent of all crime was not reported to the police.

According to the most recent crime figures for 2006-7 there were 5.42 million crimes reported to police. That would mean a further 8.13 million crimes went unreported.

 – A major campaign to tackle the problem of gang violence and disorder in Scotland was launched this week.

The crackdown, headed by the Violence Reduction Unit, will see police working with gang members and others to combat problems such as violence, football hooliganism and public disorder.

The campaign is the latest phase in the Safer Scotland anti-violence campaign and will see officers using enforcement, “attitudinal change programmes” and diversionary activities in a bid to make the streets safer.

Steve House, chief constable of Strathclyde, has said he will use the full force of the law to “de-glamorise and disrupt” gang violence.