‘It’s madness’: Chair hits back at claims officers are failing to make arrests

15 September 2026

North Wales Police Federation has defended officers after a newspaper article claimed four in 10 police officers in England and Wales failed to make an arrest last year.

The national tabloid article reported that the proportion of officers recorded as making no arrests rose from 35 per cent in the previous two years to 40 per cent in 2025/26.

It was based on Freedom of Information responses from 16 police forces, with North Wales Police having one of the highest proportions, with 71 per cent of officers recorded as making no arrests.

But North Wales Police Federation branch chair Trystan Bevan said the figures gave a misleading picture of police productivity and failed to reflect the way modern policing operates.

Arrests

“It’s madness to suggest that the number of arrests an individual officer makes is a meaningful measure of how productive or effective they are,” he said.

“An arrest is just one part of a much bigger policing process. Officers are working together to prevent crime, protect victims, investigate offences, gather evidence, identify offenders and ultimately bring people before the courts.

“So if an officer hasn’t personally made an arrest, that doesn’t mean they haven’t contributed to an arrest, an investigation or an offender being brought to justice.”

Home Office figures show there were 754,046 arrests in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025, an increase of five per cent on the previous year.

But arrests are just one of a range of outcomes arising from police activity, alongside cautions, warnings, community resolutions and summonses.

Trystan said officers could make a significant contribution to an investigation without ever being the person who physically arrests a suspect.

“Take a detective who spends days or weeks building a case, gathering evidence and identifying a suspect,” he said.

“They may have played a crucial role in getting that offender charged, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the officer who makes the arrest.

Safeguard

“The same applies across policing. Officers safeguard vulnerable people, respond to emergencies, deal with victims, gather intelligence, work in custody and control rooms, investigate complex offences, and support colleagues.

“Much of that work will never show up in an individual arrest figure.”

He said the 71 per cent figure for North Wales Police therefore risked creating a false impression of the work officers do.

“To look at a statistic and say that 71 per cent of North Wales Police officers ‘made no arrests’ and then imply that those officers weren’t productive is completely misleading,” he said.

“Policing is a team effort. You cannot measure the contribution of thousands of officers by counting how many times they put someone in handcuffs.

Investigation

“An officer can spend hours, days or weeks working on an investigation which ultimately leads to an offender being charged, while another officer makes the arrest. Both have played an important part in bringing that offender to justice.”

Trystan said portraying officers as failing because they had not personally made an arrest could also further damage morale at a time when officers were already under significant pressure.

“Officers are dealing with traumatic incidents, increasingly complex investigations and ever-growing demand,” he said.

“Reducing the value of their work to one statistic is incredibly frustrating and risks damaging morale.

“They need to know that the public recognise the full range of work they do - not judge them on a single number that tells only a tiny part of the story.”

READ MORE: The changing face of CID by Kris Williams.