Police Courts and Criminals
This essay sets out to establish the current nature of Policing, Court proceedings and Criminal activity in the UK.
The data referred to is from the.
Police Powers and Procedures England and Wales 2011 – 2012 and 2012 – 2013
The Crime in England and Wales figures issued by the ONS
Open Justice .Gov.UK and the Ministry of Justice taken from averages over 367,727 cases.
Police
The Structure of the Police
The Police Services in the UK are made up of
43 Police Forces.
129,584 Police Officers
65,573 Police Staff
19,011 Special Constables
This gives a total Police Service of 214,168 personnel.
Police Personnel Numbers
The numbers in the Police Service have been decreasing from 2010 – 2011 by 4,625 and from 2011 to 2012 by 5.010 and from 2012 – 2013 by 4,516.
Police Crime Rates
The crime rates recorded in the Police Powers and Procedures England and Wales 2011 – 2012 and 2012 – 2013 figures were.
2011 – 2012 2012 - 2013
Arrests 1,200,000 1,100,000
Stop and Search 1,100,000 1,000,000
Fixed Penalty Notice 1,000,000 1,300,000
Totals 3,800,000 3,400,000
There were 7,500,000 incidents reported for the year ending 2013 according to The Crime in England and Wales figures issued by the ONS.
Therefore the arrest, stop and search and fixed penalty notices are not the only indicator of the level of work being carried out by the Police.
In order to establish the level of work being undertaken by the Police Force the 2012 – 2013 figures can be examined.
Crime Rates per Police Force
Arrests
= 1,100,000 / 43 forces = an average of 25,581 per force per year.
Stop and Search
= 1,000,000 / 43 forces = an average of 23,255 per force per year.
Fixed Penalty Notices
= 1,300,000 / 43 forces = an average of 30,232 per force per year.
Crime Rates per Police role.
Arrests
= 1,100,000 / 129,584 = 9 arrests involvements per officer per year.
= 1,100,000 / 65,573 = 16 arrest involvements per staff per year.
= 1,100,000 / 19,011 = 57 arrest involvements per special constables per year.
Stop and Search
= 1,000,000 / 129,584 = 8 stop and search involvements per officer per year.
= 1,000,000 / 65,573 = 17 stop and search involvements per staff per year.
= 1,000,000 / 19,011 = 53 stop and search involvements per special constables per year.
Fixed Penalty Notices
= 1,300,000 / 129,584 = 10 fixed penalty notice involvements per officer per year.
= 1,300,000 / 65,573 = 20 fixed penalty notice involvements per staff per year.
= 1,300,000 / 19,011 = 68 fixed penalty notice involvements per special constables per year.
Allowing for the sequence of occurrence of this data. The initial involvement of a few numbers of Police Officers causes a larger number of Police Staff and Police Special Constables to become involved in each type of crime rate being calculated.
Therefore examining the Police Officer involvement in more detail can give an indication of the level of minimal involvement of the Police Force.
Frequency of Police Officer Involvement per Crime Type
Arrests
= 9 arrests involvements per officer per year = 1 per every 40 days.
Stop and Search
= 8 stop and search involvements per officer per year. = 1 per every 45 days.
Fixed Penalty Notices
= 10 fixed penalty notice involvements per officer per year = 1 per every 37 days.
So the average involvement for Police Officers in any of the three crime types is less than 1 per month.
Therefore out of 30 to 31 days 1 is spent on actual arrest, stop and search or fixed penalty notices, 29-30 must be being spent on standing order duties or paperwork relating to each crime rate types.
Court Proceedings
The timescales involved from offence to court case outcome can be examined from the information issued on the Open Justice .Gov.UK and the Ministry of Justice taken from averages over 367,727 cases.
From Offence to a defendant being charged and laid in court = 13 weeks.
From the case being laid to the first hearing = 5 weeks.
From the first hearing to the case outcome = 4 weeks.
Total = 22 weeks.
Therefore 22 weeks out of 52 weeks per year is used up in court proceedings for each crime rate type.
Correlating each crime rate type with the frequency of involvement per Police Officer and then multiplying this by the time for court proceedings a minimum level of total involvement per crime rate can be established.
Arrests
= 1 arrest per Police Officer every 40 days.
= 9 arrests per year per Police Officer but at 9 per year x 22 weeks court proceedings for each case.
= 198 weeks = 4 years total police involvement for 1 year of arrests made.
Stop and Search
= 1 stop and search per Police Officer every 45 days.
= 8 stop and search per Police Officer per year but at 8 per year x 22 weeks court proceedings each case.
= 176 weeks = 3.5 years total police involvement for 1 year of stop and searches made.
Fixed Penalty Notices
= 1 fixed penalty notice per Police Officer every 37 days.
= 10 fixed penalty notices per Police Officer per year but at 10 per year x 22 weeks court proceedings each case.
= 220 weeks = 4 years total police involvement for 1 year of fixed penalty notices made.
Court Proceedings per Court Type
Magistrates Courts are taking 21 – 22 weeks to process a case.
Crown Courts are taking 45 weeks to process a case.
The actual time required to process each crime type could therefore be double from those indicated above, resulting in up to 8 years of Police involvement for every 1 year of Police duties.
Allowing for the 7,500,000 incidents of crime figure originally reported by The Crime in England and Wales figures issued by the ONS then the figures for each Police Role can be again re-calculated based on the time required for court proceedings.
Police Officers
= 129,584 personnel.
= 7,500,000 / 129,584
= 58 incidents per Police Officer per year.
= 58 x 22 weeks court proceedings per case.
= 1,276 weeks.
= 25 years to process 1 year of the total Police Officers involvement in all the Police Forces
Police Staff
= 65,573 personnel.
= 7,500,000 / 65,573
= 114 incidents per Police Staff per year.
= 114 x 22 weeks court proceedings per case.
= 2,508 weeks.
= 48 years to process 1 year of the total Police Staff involvement in all the Police Forces
Special Constables
= 19,011 personnel.
= 7,500,000 / 19,011
= 395 incidents per Special Constables per year.
= 395 x 22 weeks court proceedings per case.
= 8,690 weeks.
= 167 years to process to process 1 year of the total Special Constables involvement in all the Police Forces.
There is clearly some question as to the method of recording what constitutes an incident.
These figures again indicate a large proportion of overlapping time per crime rate type per Police Officer, Staff, and Special Constables.
They also indicate the location of the major delay even when overlapping time is considered.
The delay is clearly not within the initial Police duties but within the court proceedings to process and judge each case being laid within the criminal justice system.
Having established the location of the major delay its nature can be examined in more detail.
Process rate of cases in courts.
From the data of the Open Justice .Gov.UK and the Ministry of Justice taken from averages over 367,727 cases the following is indicated.
In 2012 there were 340,146 civil, non-family, claims made and 10,117 actual claims heard in a court hearing.
In 2012 there were approx. 6,000 family claims per quarter. 32,000 cases were heard in court.
In 2012 there were approx. 418,316 criminal cases heard in magistrates courts and 33,137 cases heard in crown courts. Totalling 493,570 criminal cases per year.
The likely location of the delay is therefore is within the court proceedings relating to criminal cases.
The average time, as previously noted, for each case was 21 to 45 weeks to process a case, resulting in an average time 32 weeks.
In relation to criminal cases
= 493,570 cases x 32 weeks proceedings per each case.
= 15,794,240 weeks to process all the cases.
= 303,735 years of court time if the time were not overlapped.
If overlapped and allowing for the total possible number of courts in use in the UK.
= 491 county courts, 330 magistrates courts, 91 crown courts totalling
= Total number of possible courts operating simultaneously per year = 912
= 493,570 / 912
= 541 cases per court per year.
= 365 days / 541 cases per year.
= 0.67 days per case.
= 16 hours of time per each case per year.
The actual time taken per case.
= 541 cases x 32 weeks
= 17,312 weeks
= 332 years of overlapping backlog of criminal cases per year in the court system.
These figures again indicate a large proportion of overlapping administration time per Police Officer, Staff and Special Constable per case.
They also indicate the location of the major delay even when overlapping time is considered..
The delay is clearly not within the initial Police duties but within the court proceedings to process and judge each criminal case.
More court rooms or faster methods of processing each criminal case are therefore required.
Police to Population Ratio
In 2013 there were 64,100,000 people in the UK according to the World Bank data.
In 2013 – 2014 the total number of employed people in the UK from the ONS and Gov. data was approx. 30,000,000.
The total police numbers in the UK are 214,168.
This gives a ratio of Police to Population of 1 to 300.
This gives a ratio of Police to Working population of 1 to 140.
Criminals
In 2012 there were 1,230,000 offenders sentenced.
In 2014 the prison population was 85,406 with an operational prison capacity of 88,116.
This gives a total number of offenders of 1,315,406.
This gives a ratio of Police to Criminals of 1: 6.
There are clearly insufficient Police to cover the size of the criminal or general population in the UK.
Future
The UK is about to enter into an era of energy, resource and environment depletion.
There will be an increase in the UK population.
Fossil fuel use will reduce to counter climate change.
There will be an increase in urban living.
There will be an ongoing increase in communications.
Criminal activity is therefore likely to increase.
More Police will be needed.
Conclusions
The numbers in the Police Service have been decreasing from 2010 – 2011 by 4,625 and from 2011 to 2012 by 5.010 and from 2012 – 2013 by 4,516.
The number of crimes taken to a processing level has reduced by approx. 400,000 since 2011.
However the arrest, stop and search and fixed penalty notices are not the only indicator of the level of work being carried out by the Police.
The average involvement for Police Officers any of the three noted crime types is less than 1 day per month. Therefore out of 30 to 31 days 1 day is spent on actual arrest, stop and search or fixed penalty notices, 29-30 days must be being spent on standing order duties or paperwork relating to processing the crime types.
Magistrates Courts are taking 21 – 22 weeks to process a case.
Crown Courts are taking 45 weeks to process a case.
This time could be doubled if the incidents rates per year attended by the Police are considered.
The time to process every 1 year of Police duties in a court is up to 8 years.
The data indicates a large proportion of administration time per Police personnel per case and per year.
The data also indicates the location of a major delay.
It is not within the initial Police duties but within the court proceedings to judge criminal cases.
Therefore more court rooms and faster methods of processing each crime are required.
The capacity of the Prisons is also an issue that needs additional methods of processing offenders, and new prisons.
These figures indicate that the Police need more personnel to counter the number of criminals in the UK in 2014- 2015. However as was indicated the numbers of Police have been declining since 2010.
The Police and Criminal Justice system needs to expand in order to allow for increased criminal activity in the future. It also will be expected to reduce in size in order to exist in a depletion context.
It is this paradox that needs resolving.
Ian K Whittaker
Websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/architecturearticles
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
31/01/2015
14/10/2020
2136 words over 6 pages