The Social Market Foundation (SMF), a non-partisan think tank believe England and Wales needs an additional 30,000 more police and civilian experts to keep pace with the rapid growth in fraud.
The cross-party SMF made the call in a briefing paper on fraud, which is now the most common crime in England and Wales and costs the UK economy £137bn a year.
The SMF estimates that there are just 2.1 police officers and staff primarily focused on economic crime, for every 1,000 recorded fraud instances in England and Wales.
Based on fraud not recorded by the police and using figures reported by households in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), this figure stands at an even lower 0.4 officers per act of fraud. Put another way, for each police worker dedicated to fraud there are 2,500 crimes per year.
Using police-recorded crime figures, fraud now accounts for 15% of all offences. That suggests that an extra 30,000 police staff are needed to ensure a proportionate share of policing resources is dedicated to fraud.
Based on the Crime Survey data, fraud now accounts for a shocking 39% of all crime. The SMF said that would mean recruiting as many as 80,000 extra staff to respond properly.
Current police staffing numbers stand at around 211,000 in in England and Wales, comprised of 135,000 officers and 76,000 other staff.
As well as more staff, the SMF called for sweeping changes in the policing of fraud, because current systems are failing badly. “Resolving this issue must not just be about expanding headcount – the UK’s existing institutional landscape for dealing with fraud is a mess,” the SMF said.
The think-tank set out a ten-point plan for overhauling the policing of fraud, including stripping local forces of responsibility for economic crime and greatly increasing the power of national bodies, under the supervision of senior ministers. (See notes for details.)
Richard Hyde, SMF senior researcher said: “Fraud is now Britain’s dominant crime, but policing has utterly failed to keep up with its rapid and painful growth. That means too many people are suffering the distress and loss that fraud inflicts. We are trying to fix a 21st Century problem with a policing system devised for the 19th Century. We need major change.”
“Too much debate about policing is still about bobbies on the beat. While visible policing to reassure people is important, it’s not what’s needed to tackle the biggest group of crimes being committed in Britain today. Politicians should be honest with voters about the nature of crime today and the major changes that will be needed to deal with it.”
