Violent crime is surging in Norfolk: A man was hit with a biscuit and a child brushed with a stinging nettle. The Horror.
The county’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) Stephen Bett said he couldn’t believe some examples his officers were having to record as violent crimes.
Mr Bett recently asked the county’s chief constable to explain a 14 per cent rise in crime, and was told that due to a change in the way the force had to record certain crimes numerous incidents were now falling into the violent crime category.
‘You could not make this up – it’s jaw-dropping. I am sure people will find these examples of what the police are having to record as violent crime hard to believe, to say the least. I frankly couldn’t believe what I was reading. Is it any wonder we have seen a rise in recorded violent crime in Norfolk if these types of incidents have to be logged? The last thing I want to do is to trivialise any incident where there is a victim, but I am struggling to see how someone being hit by a biscuit or brushed by a stinging nettle fits anyone’s idea of a violent crime. I think people will also be surprised that text messages are “violent”. There is a danger that when people see a raw headline that “violent crime is up in Norfolk”, the fear of crime could rise. That is why I feel it is important to highlight this issue and make people aware.’
Incidents recorded as violent crime in Norfolk
- Mother slapping her three-year-old child on the hand as they left a shop. Police investigated and it transpired the child had taken a bar of chocolate from the shop and hidden it in their clothes.
- A young child was bought a boxing glove by his parents. He was swinging it round and caught a smaller sibling with it. This was recorded as actual bodily harm (ABH).
- A woman threw a biscuit at a man which left a small red mark. This was recorded as ABH.
- Two children were playing together and one brushed a stinging nettle across the other’s arm. This was recorded as ABH.
The police once considered “malicious communications” as non-crimes; it relates to any offensive text or letter sent to people…. and now an extra 183 offences were heaped into the violence band since April. The vast majority of these involve people sending texts. This could add more than 1,000 violent crimes a year in Norfolk
Deputy chief constable Charlie Hall said: ‘Following HMIC inspection last year, Norfolk ensures strict compliance with the National Crime Recording Standards that determine which incidents must be recorded as crimes.
‘These rules require us to record certain incidents as crimes and, rightly, do not provide professional discretion as to whether or not to record these. Some of these may appear to be quite minor issues the public would not normally associate with being crimes.
‘We take a measured approach to how we deal with such cases. Just because we record these as crimes, it will not always be appropriate to arrest or seek to prosecute the alleged offenders. It is very much dependent on the individual circumstances of each report.’ Yup, being hit by a biscuit certainly isn’t a crime. Why is it that the police seem to consider everything done by a civilian criminal…
I mean, being hit by a police officer while pregnant is a crime… while being a police officer who hits pregnant women is just a normal day of police work….
Source: Metro
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