Public has lost faith in crime statistics

[19 June 2008]

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has said there is “almost no public faith” in UK crime figures.

At the second Colin Cramphorn memorial lecture, he blamed the public's lack of faith on the rapid changes in ways crimes are categorised. He said British authorities should look for a more straightforward approach, like the simpler statistics used in New York, US. The Met Chief said that “few people question the crime figures in New York” because the city “has not fiddled about with how they collect crimes statistics in the way the UK has.”

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