SNP ‘manipulating’ crime figures, police say

The Scotsman has learned officers attending next week’s Scottish Police Federation conference will say the government is “hiding” the true extent of Scotland’s crime rate by reclassifying offences such as violent crime as less serious. .

A motion to the conference, which will be addressed by justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, says officers do not believe the SNP’s claim that Scotland has the lowest crime rate in 32 years, with 323,060 offences recorded in 2010-11.

On the SNP’s website ahead of last year’s Holyrood elections, the party said it had created a “safer Scotland”, with “crime at a 32-year low and 1,000 more police officers on the streets”.

Its election manifesto repeated the claim and said crime rates had “fallen by a fifth since the SNP came to power and are now at their lowest level for 32 years”.

The manifesto said: “That means there are now 80,000 fewer crimes recorded by the police each year. Violent crime is also falling and is now at its lowest level for a quarter of a century.”

However, the motion, from the Strathclyde joint branch board of the police federation, to be debated at the conference in Aviemore on Wednesday, claims “rank and file operational police officers know that this is not the case”. It says some offences have been “decriminalised”, with some of the more serious recorded crimes “subsumed” and grouped in with less serious offences.

It reads: “This motion seeks to address the Scottish Crime Recording Standard, which has decriminalised crimes and offences within Scotland and has introduced the phrase ‘subsumed’, which means to include something under a general classification, thereby hiding the true figures.

“The mover of this motion believes that this is a manipulation of figures designed to conceal from the general public the true extent of crime within Scotland.”

David Kennedy, secretary of the Strathclyde joint branch board, told The Scotsman assaults were often recorded as a breach of the peace, with housebreaking reclassified as theft.

Under Scotland’s system of recording crime, offences such as assaulting a police officer could be recorded as resisting arrest, while some thefts might be not included at all in the crime figures quoted by SNP ministers.

Mr Kennedy said: “It’s more about looking at how crime is recorded, with housebreaking put down as something else, for example.

“The mover of the motion clearly believes that the figures have been adjusted, with serious assaults classed as assaults.

“In years gone by, we might have talked about a shed break-in, whereas now we might simply say a theft. We are not fully aware how they do all this.

“It’s about taking a group of crimes and putting them on a list, such as breach of the peace. An assault on a police officer could be listed as resisting arrest.”

Mr Kennedy claimed a shortage of police officers had led to fewer crimes being reported.

He said: “The point the mover of the motion is trying to make is that there are not enough police officers to cope with all the crime that’s reported, and in some situations, people aren’t reporting crimes.

“There’s a lot of talk about 1,000 extra police officers in Scotland, but we’re well short and we need at least 2,000 more.

“When people phone the police, they want to see the police, but the shortage of police officers means people can be left waiting, which leads to the problem we have.”

The police claims were described by as a “huge embarrassment” for First Minister Alex Salmond by Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, who suggested the SNP was “concealing the truth” about the extent of crime in Scotland.

He said: “Alex Salmond has boasted for years that the SNP has delivered record low crime, but now senior police officers are saying that they don’t believe what he is saying.

“The SNP needs to urgently address this issue and tell us whether the figures they are currently using are the real ones or whether they are concealing the truth.”

Scottish Labour’s justice spokesman, Lewis Macdonald, called for a “full investigation” into the way crime is recorded by officials.

He said: “If these are the views of serving police officers, then we must listen and act.

“The boast that crime is at a 32-year low will not be recognised by many in our communities whose everyday experience is vastly different.”

However, the Scottish Government dismissed the police claims. A spokeswoman said: “The way crime is recorded and classified is a matter for crime registrars within the police forces themselves – not for ministers – and has remained consistent since the introduction of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard [SCRS] in 2004-05.

“The recorded crime figures reported by independent statisticians are those provided by the police forces according to the SCRS, which is updated and maintained by the Scottish police forces’ crime registrars.”