UK Edition
Private security firm mounts UK's first private prosecutions for theft as police refuse to take offenders to court
A private police service is mounting private prosecutions for theft and other “minor” crimes because it claims the police have “given up” taking them to court.
The private firm, which provides neighbourhood policing to residents, firms and shops, says it has set up a new prosecution unit after its teams have apprehended shoplifters, pickpockets and drug dealers only to be told by officers called to the scene to release them.
The former senior Metropolitan police officers who run the My Local Bobby service blame cuts in police numbers which meant officers were reluctant to spend time and valuable resource investigating and prosecuting minor offences.
It comes as an analysis of police data by The Daily Telegraph shows that in some parts of Britain as few as one in 500 personal thefts - such as pickpocketing and shoplifting - are being solved with the criminal charged.
The proportion charged is down to 0.2 per cent in Suffolk, 0.3 per cent in Gloucestershire and City of London, 0.6 per cent in Warwickshire, 0.7 per cent in Greater Manchester, 0.8 per cent in Kent, and 0.9 per cent in the Metropolitan Police Service and North Yorkshire for 2018/19.
Overall, for all forces in England and Wales, the charging rate has halved in four years from 2.6 per cent in 2015/16 to 1.3 per cent for the first quarter of 2019/20.
David McKelvey, a former Detective Chief Inspector with the Met who set up the service with Tony Nash, a former Met borough commander, said the criminal justice system was in crisis with tens of thousands fewer prosecutions and lenient sentences as “old fashioned” policing had been abandoned.
Their company, TM Eye, started by specialising in investigating and prosecuting counterfeit and fake goods rackets where it says it has brought more than 500 successful prosecutions working with police forces internationally, the FBI and Federal Drugs Administration (FDA).
It launched My Local Bobby just over two years ago to provide residents, local firms and shops with neighbourhood policing more reminiscent, it says, of “Dixon of Dock Green.”
However Mr McKelvey said its teams had become increasingly frustrated in the past year by the refusal of police to prosecute the shoplifters, pickpockets, drug dealers they have been apprehending on almost a daily basis. In the past they had handed them over to police who would investigate and prosecute them.
“Now police take ages to turn up and when they do turn up, despite overwhelming evidence, they will simply take the handcuffs off and release them. We have looked at ways to do it, trying to liaise with police and senior managers in the police,” he said.
“But what we have done now is to employ a new prosecution team on shoplifting, pickpockets, low level assaults and drug dealing and we will prosecute these offences ourselves.
“Anyone can arrest and prosecute someone. What you have to do is to meet the public interest threshold and have sufficient evidence to bring a case.”
They have already mounted a test case prosecution of a shoplifter which is currently before the courts.
Mr McKelvey claims it could be a “win-win” situation for the police as it would enable them to “allocate resources to crimes that require more police time while at the same time, the shops and residents get an outcome that people want.”
He said frontline police officers were constrained by targets and resources which meant an officer would be reluctant to “spend eight hours in custody with a shoplifter for £30” even though “that shoplifter is going to go on and shoplift the next day and the day after.”
He said reasons given by officers when his teams were told to release suspects included that they did not have space in custody suites to interview them, were too busy or ruled community resolution orders were a better way of resolving the crime.
“One of the lessons that could be learned from police is that we don’t ‘arrest’ people, we gather evidence and we summons them,” said Mr McKelvey. “We don’t have hours and hours in custody where you have to interview them, which is often a waste of time because they just say: ‘No comment.’”
The company initially plans to fund the prosecution unit out of its own resources, effectively at a loss, until it can establish if it will be successful.
Its 30 “bobbies”, who are uniformed with red vests and caps, provide cover 24/7 for up to 250 houses on each beat and the firm promises to have a response at the scene within five minutes, all for a fee of £100 to £200 a month per household.
Its ‘bobbies’ are largely drawn from the ranks of former police officers and military and are accredited with the Security Industry Authority (SIA) with most also close protection trained. TM Eye’s senior investigator is Steve Hobbs, a former Met Detective Superintendent who was lead investigator on more than 200 murders.
So far it has beats operating in central and North London, with 30 more requests for contracts outstanding. “When we set up My Local Bobby just over two years ago, we wanted to replace something that was missing which is that you don’t see police officers walking the streets. You don’t see any neighbourhood officers,” said Mr McKelvey.
“We walked around Mayfair and Belgravia and you couldn’t find an officer. My Local Bobby is about having that principle front end presence like Dixon of Dock Green. Residents know who the bobbies are, and the bobbies know all the residents, they know when something is out of place.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said that forces had faced a 20,000 reduction in the number of officers since 2010 as demand from the public had increased but welcomed plans by the Government to recruit 20,000 extra police.
“Fewer officers and staff...has meant a fall in the number of cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and a lower number of people being charged,” said a spokesman.
“An increase in officer numbers in the coming years will help us to provide a better service to victims, and ease the pressure on our people.”
The spokesman added: “Policing is well used to working with private security companies on a daily basis. These firms should not replace or supplement policing and it is for properly trained officers to intervene when a crime has been committed. Where communities wish to engage these companies, they should ensure that they are properly trained and accredited. We will work with these personnel in the most appropriate way and reports of crime and evidence provided to police by a third party will be assessed and dealt with.