“Massive back-logs” revealed in an email seen by the Lib Dems show that victims in the Thames Valley are being denied the justice they deserve.
A note sent by an Enquiry Officer to a victim of a road traffic incident who had submitted footage of the event said:
“I need to make you aware that we have a massive back-log at present and this case is nearly out of time. This is due to several staff leaving, not as yet replaced and volume of submissions.”
The chronic workload being piled on hard-working staff meant the driver in this case wasn’t handed out the correct punishment and is likely to repeat their dangerous behaviour, as the letter goes onto clarify:
“This limits our disposal options and in this case it will be a formal written warning as no time for the offending driver to complete driver education which was the original disposal selected.”
This isn’t just a one off. Similar concerns were raised by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary that said in a recent report that Thames Valley Police requires improvement at investigating crime. It added:
“The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime.” and that only “3.8 percent of victim-based crimes were assigned a charged/summonsed outcome in the year ending 31 December 2022.” Below the national average.
After decades in control the Conservatives have left our police understaffed and underfunded. If elected Police and Crime Commissioner, the Liberal Democrat’s Tim Bearder has pledged to fight for a decent central government settlement and take road safety seriously - something that isn’t even in the current Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners top five priorities.
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