Police manipulates crime statistics, with bad repercussions

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http://www.todayonline.com/world/europe/police-failed-investigate-sex-attacks-across-six-london-boroughs

A man accused of rape was allowed to walk free and later kill two children as a result of a “disturbing” police policy to manipulate crime statistics by failing to record sexual assault allegations – a tactic that was employed in several more London boroughs than was officially admitted yesterday, the Guardian has learned.

An official report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) yesterday identified one London borough – Southwark – where the policy operated.

However, sources said that an internal police review in 2009 had identified five other areas where similar practices operated.

The resulting policy led to scores of women having their allegations not classified as crimes that should have been investigated by police. When the practices were spotted by Metropolitan police chiefs and corrected, it led to a 25 per cent spike in recorded sexual offences in a year, a rise of 469 recorded incidents, a source said.

Yesterday’s report from the IPCC focused on the policy of a specialist Met sex crimes unit based in Southwark, south London, which was branded as “deeply disturbing”.

The IPCC said the Sapphire unit in Southwark tried to persuade women who reported they had been sexually attacked to drop their cases.

It did so to boost its performance figures, which were among the worst in the Met.

The policy had disastrous consequences. A woman who made rape allegations against Jean Say in November 2008 did not have her case investigated.

Say went on to murder his daughter Regina, aged 8, and son Rolls, aged 10, with a carving knife, with police having missed the chance to take him off the streets. He was later jailed for life.

The IPCC also revealed other Met failings.

The IPCC refused to say how many women had been effected by the practice. It said further investigation was hampered because of missing files, which disappeared during building works and due to an archiving system.

Solicitor Debaleena Dasgupta, who helps women who feel they have been failed by the criminal justice system, said the refusal to investigate legitimate rape claims was wider-reaching than one Sapphire unit.

“I have been approached by people who have been in the same position when dealt with by other parts of the Met – it’s not just Southwark,” she said.