POLICE - WE'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO CATCH CROOKS

Britain's detectives are failing to catch and convict many criminals because
they are not good enough, according to one of the country's most senior
police officers.

Sir David Phillips, the president of the Association of Chief Police
Officers (Acpo) and Chief Constable of Kent, believes investigators are too
often good "all-rounders", but are unable to overcome the ploys used by
criminals and their lawyers because they lack specialist training.

He said standards had declined in the past decade and many court cases were
collapsing because of investigative failures.

His comments to The Independent follow the release of figures showing that
the number of crimes solved by police reached a record low last year, with
fewer than one in four of the 5.1 million reported offences detected.
Overall, police detected 24 per cent of recorded crimes in 2000-01, compared
with 35 per cent in 1988.

Sir David said his force in Kent was to introduce a scheme to promote
potential CID investigators more quickly so that they only have to spend a
few months as uniformed beat officers before they can specialise.

He also disclosed that Acpo was to publish the first national investigations
manual for detectives later this year. "Many cases fail because the skill
and knowledge of the investigators is not high enough," he said.

"We have the police pitted against skilled legal professionals, rather than
the criminals. I think 10 years ago we were seeing the beginning of the
decline but we had no convincing plan and strategy. [We need] a shift from
the culture of the all-rounder. I don't think we are in a crisis, but the
trend is not healthy."

Sir David said potential investigators could spend too long working as beat
officers and criticised the system of tenure, in which officers had to
switch departments regularly. This was introduced partly to prevent corrupt
practices developing.

The seriousness of the problem had been illustrated by forces having to hire
retired investigators to review unsolved cases, particularly murders.

Part of the problem, Sir David said, is that rich criminals are able to
employ lawyers who can exploit loopholes in the law and mistakes by
investigating officers to free their clients. Police had to work more
closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that when cases were
brought to court, they stuck, he said.

Sir David said officers needed to develop skills including better knowledge
of the law, legal procedures, forensic science and intelligence issues.

In almost every category of crime, the detection rate has been dropping. For
violent offences, it fell from 59 per cent to 55 per cent in 2000-01. The
rate for violence against the person was 62 per cent in 2000-01, compared
with 71 per cent in 1998-99, and 53 per cent for sexual offences, compared
with 68 per cent in 1998-99.

Sir David also gave his backing to the idea of heroin "shooting galleries",
in which addicts are given the drugs and needles to inject in a controlled
environment. He called for trials to discover whether these would cut crime.
"If you are to experiment with the legal supply of heroin to people who are
addicted, then it has to be in a controlled environment -- whether we call
them shooting galleries or whatever," he said.