Crime prevention is ‘better than cure’ but it requires resources – Sir Tom Winsor

15 March 2022

Sir Tom Winsor has highlighted the maxim that “prevention is better than cure” when it comes to tackling crime, calling for a society-wide approach, in his final report on the state of policing in England and Wales.

With his appointment as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary due to conclude on 31 March, his annual report covering 2021 also takes in a 10-year perspective covering his time in the role.

Sir Tom noted: “Virtually all of the costs of the criminal justice system are incurred downstream of the commission of an offence. In policing and criminal justice, prevention is far better than cure. It is therefore extremely important that the first obligation of the police, in preventing crime, is given the attention and resources required.”

He goes on to say that crime prevention is the obligation of every citizen and not solely the police, who sit at the “nexus of intractable social problems” and public expectation. There is a role to be played by Government, agencies, parents, school and communities, the report noted.

He added: “Prevention is also an obligation of health professionals, particularly in the field of mental health where undiagnosed or untreated illness can, as we know, lead to the commission of serious violent crime. A number of studies have shown that, in very many cases, offending behaviour and mental ill health go hand in hand.”

Darren Harris, chair of Suffolk Police Federation, has backed Sir Tom’s comments.

“For far too long, policing has been held responsible for all the ills of society, with the finger of blame pointed at police officers and staff despite failings in other organisations,” said Darren.

“We are the service that never says no, picking up the responsibilities of others, and it is time that others upheld their obligations. Effective partnership working relies on all parties pulling their weight and sadly that is not always happening.

“Policing is under huge pressure right now, and there needs to be a true commitment to long-term investment in the police service and the people who make up that service so that we can properly serve our communities.”

Sir Tom noted that each of his preceding eight annual assessments had highlighted the increased demand on policing created by inadequacies in the provision of mental health services. Despite this, in a 2021 joint inspection with the other criminal justice and healthcare inspectorates, a shortage of good-quality mental health service provision was found, alongside unacceptable delays in accessing it.

This had only got worse during the pandemic, while a third of people in police custody have mental ill-health, as do 48 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women in prison.

“These statistics speak for themselves,” said Sir Tom.

He went on: “Although the police’s primary purpose is the prevention of crime, in cases where mental ill-health is an appreciable factor, it would be unrealistic to expect the police to make significant progress as long as the public provision of treatment for mental ill-health continues to be chronically insufficient.”

Since the roots of the problems often lie in “adverse childhood experiences”, such as abusive environments, only significant and far-reaching changes in the approach of policymakers would achieve the improvements needed, the report found.

He emphasised that policing cannot hope to meet public expectations without an increase in resources or a grown-up conversation with the public about “how much safety they are prepared to pay for, and how much risk they are prepared to tolerate.”

The report also found that technology had transformed the landscape over the last 10 years, with us living more of our lives online, courtesy of phones, tablets, laptops and other digital devices. However, this had given rise to an explosion in fraud and other threats such as trolling, online stalkers and predatory paedophiles.

“Most children are now more at risk in their own bedrooms than they are on the streets,” Sir Tom’s report notes chillingly. He goes on to criticise “alarming backlogs and delays” in the extraction and analysis of evidence from digital devices.

Other points in the report include:

• Total demand and public expectations cannot be met without sufficient funding and the public must decide how much threat, harm and risk they are prepared to tolerate; and
• The rapid advancement of technology has provided opportunities for both criminals and the police, but policing has struggled to keep pace;
• The load placed on the police by the chronically insufficient public provision of treatment of mental ill-health is unjustified;
• The need for improved vetting of officers and staff;
• The 43-force model, born in 1962, is no longer fit for purpose.

Read the full report.