Violent crime increase by 21% across UK: Data

A violent incident of a UK police officer being run over in Manchester has attracted attention to a growth of violence in England and Wales.

The 43-year-old police officer was struck by the van after being called to reports of a disturbance in the English city of Manchester.

Witnesses claimed the police officer had tried to approach a black van but ran down the officer in a botched escape attempt.

The officer is believed to be in a stable condition in hospital with injuries on his leg, the van driver has not yet been apprehended but police are continuing to investigate.

"It was madness. The van driver scraped the side of my car as he was trying to get away from two chasing police cars,” Witness Jack Heys, 23, told the reporters on the scene.

The rise in violent crime

The incident is part of a more significant trend of violent crime in England and Wales. Official statistics on police recorded crime show there were 1.3 million violent crimes in England and Wales last year (2017/2018).

That is an increase of 21% compared with 2016 when 1.1 million violent crimes were recorded.

That continues the rising trend in recorded violent crime being observed since 2014.

There were also jumps in the numbers of recorded robberies (up 22%), vehicle-related theft (up 7%) and burglaries (2%).

Austerity

Social commentators and political analysts have attributed the rise in violent crime to the British government's austerity program, which has imposed severe cuts in government spending to public services since 2010.

The UK Conservative party came back into power around that time.

Cuts in police budgets, in particular, has been highlighted as a principal cause for the spike in violent crime.

A British Home Office official said “significant strain” on police spending is causing the service given to the public to worsen; other senior officers have also condemned the impact of austerity.

Scott McPherson, director general of the crime police and fire group, said the department “absolutely recognizes” the struggle to cope with budget cuts and plummeting numbers of police officers.

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“The police are under significant strain and, with the resources they have, some of the performance measures we would like to be improving are getting worse,” he told the Public Accounts Committee.

British Members of Parliament have also been made aware that there are 50,000 fewer people now working in the police force compared to 2010, while violence, terrorism and anti-crime demands have increased.

Another vital issue is the slashes to other public budgets, which have overstretched the police force and created a “service of last resort” attitude towards mental health, missing people, suicide and other reported cases.

Some forces have started "prioritizing" the crime they respond to because of the strain on resources, and figures show that the majority of victims are left with no confidence in the criminal justice system by their experience.

Investigations are now taking far longer, and almost half are closed without a suspect being successfully identified. The proportion of investigations ending with someone being charged or summoned to court has fallen to 9 per cent.

Jane Kennedy, the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner, said the falling number of police officers was having a “real impact on ordinary people”, adding: “The impact of austerity has been immense.”

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