Staffordshire Police Federation secretary Glyn Pattinson has joined the ongoing debate about the amount of time victims of crime are having to wait to see justice.
Glyn featured in a Daily Telegraph article on Saturday which suggested police officers were becoming bogged down in needless paperwork leading to lengthy delays in the criminal justice system.
He told the paper he wanted to see an urgent rethink to streamline existing processes which would bring cases to resolution quicker for the victims.
And he also called for a lighter touch review of cases before decisions were taken which he said would avoid days and weeks of wasted work.
Glyn, who was speaking in his role as chair of the Police Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum, said: “The Telegraph has highlighted a very serious problem but it is important to stress this is not just an issue for detectives, it is impacting on everyone.
“The system is on the verge of becoming unworkable because the huge amounts of paperwork now required means it takes so long to prepare cases.
“Victims are being kept waiting for many months longer than they should and that is adding to their anguish and the stress they are already under.”
The Telegraph said crime victims were being forced to wait 50 per cent longer for detectives to charge perpetrators because officers are being bogged down with paperwork.
Detectives told the paper days and weeks were wasted as they got cases “trial ready” even before they are referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a decision on whether to charge the suspect.
They said this included cases even where a criminal admitted an offence and offered to plead guilty, or where there was no chance of a conviction because of a lack of evidence or leads.
The Telegraph said this could require officers to prepare files of hundreds of pages of “third party” evidence, such as the victim’s years of contact with social and health services, and thousands of data files that may not even need to be put to the court if the suspect pleads guilty.
Ministry of Justice data shows it takes 419 days on average between the victim reporting an offence and the CPS authorising police to charge the suspect - a 49.6 per cent increase on the 282 day average in 2019.
Attorney General Suella Braverman told the paper aspects of the current system were “excessive, onerous and disproportionate”.
