Car crime given higher priority than rape cases

A recent Independent Police Complaints Commission report found one untrained police constable in a Sapphire unit was struggling to deal with up to 33 sex offences at a time.

It was a frightening example of how young constables are being asked to investigate rape cases with no experience as detectives.

They should not be blamed for the current failures — blame for the crisis at Scotland Yard involving the investigation of sex attacks lies much higher up the ranks, and with the Home Office.

Senior officers at the Yard have overseen a dramatic shift in the investigative approach to crimes such as rape and sex assaults.

Over the past 10 years their priorities have focused on offences subject to targets fixed by the Home Office.

In a relentless pursuit of performance, senior officers diverted resources into the target crimes such as street robbery, car crime and burglary.

Sex offences have become virtually ignored in comparison because they have not been a Home Office target.

Insiders say this has meant senior police chiefs have driven local borough commanders to get the best results in target crimes — at the expense of tackling other offences.

Local CIDs, in particular the Sapphire teams that investigate sex attacks, have been stripped of experienced detectives.

Ten years ago all rape cases had to be overseen by a detective inspector.

Under the Met's rules, a trained detective constable is now the lowest rank who should handle rape cases, but even this has been downgraded.

Women are right to be concerned: car crime has been treated as a higher priority than their safety.