50 Facts Everyone Should Know About the Police

Criminal Investigation and Policing in England and Wales

John Lamb, Max Hart, James Treadwell, Adam Lynes, Craig Kelly, John Lamb, Max Hart, James Treadwell, Adam Lynes, Craig Kelly

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781447370482
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Have you ever wondered whether crime dramas reflect the reality of police work? Or what the future of policing could look like in the context of recent controversies?

Offering thought-provoking insights into understanding, addressing and preventing crime, this fascinating 'go to' book reveals the myths and realities of policing in the 21st century. The 50 facts take in crime prevention, the investigative process, forensics, models of policing, the limits of police powers and a range of other provocative themes. Offering a deeper and richer understanding of the profession, this book will equip you to think critically about modern perceptions of policing.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Notes on the editors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• FACT 1 There is no definitive proof that Robert Peel ever developed the principles that underpin British policing
• FACT 2 ‘Trust is the foundation upon which consent and legitimacy for policing is built’
• FACT 3 The police have acted as ‘moral guardians’ since the early 19th century
• FACT 4 The senior investigating officer role is not like you see on TV!
• FACT 5 The role of the custody sergeant is to be the guardian of an individual’s rights and wellbeing
• FACT 6 Crimes are classed as solved once someone is charged with an offence
• FACT 7 The Integrated Offender Management scheme has aided significant reductions in reoffending since its formulation in 2009
• FACT 8 Roads policing is key to saving lives, disrupting crime and police legitimacy, but it has been routinely undervalued and is sometimes resisted
• FACT 9 The police investigate some crimes that occur inside prison
• FACT 10 The number of volunteer ‘special’ constables has reduced from 67,000 in the 1950s to under 10,000 in the last decade
• FACT 11 Policing has now been ‘professionalised’
• FACT 12 Until 2020, police officers did not require formal education qualifications
• FACT 13 The senior rank structures of the Metropolitan and City of London Police differ from every other force in England and Wales
• FACT 14 The chief constable is operationally independent and cannot act on unlawful orders or unduly intrusive political direction
• FACT 15 Policewomen had a separate department from that of their male colleagues until the 1970s
• FACT 16 In the six months leading to March 2022, more than 1,500 police staff in England and Wales were accused of violence against women and girls
• FACT 17 A 2022 investigation highlighted 11,277 instances of internal misogyny and sexual misconduct in the police
• FACT 18 Between 2011 and 2020 there were 173 suicides in the UK police force
• FACT 19 Over 100 police officers are assaulted every day
• FACT 20 The Independent Office for Police Conduct is independent and makes its decisions entirely independently of the police and government
• FACT 21 Police rank structures have remained relatively unchanged
• FACT 22 Helicopters assume a crucial role in contemporary policing
• FACT 23 The Ministry of Defence Police has the highest number of Authorised Firearms Officers, second only to the Metropolitan Police Service
• FACT 24 Violence is an essential tool in the vocation of policing
• FACT 25 Despite popular belief, a substantial proportion of the British police is armed in England and Wales
• FACT 26 Between 1987 and 2023, only one officer has been convicted for manslaughter following a death in which police used force in England and Wales
• FACT 27 There is no automatic right to access body-worn video footage in England and Wales, even if the footage is about you
• FACT 28 When the police refer to evidence, this doesn’t just mean DNA and fingerprints
• FACT 29 Criminal profiling of serial murderers has never worked
• FACT 30 The perception of the police as being institutionally homophobic has hampered the ability to protect members of the gay community in England and Wales
• FACT 31 The police uniform serves an important symbolic purpose
• FACT 32 The majority of police investigations by ‘uniformed officers’ focus upon volume crime
• FACT 33 In 2023, just 5.7 per cent of reported crimes led to a charge or summons
• FACT 34 In England and Wales, no suspect is identified in 74.2 per cent of residential burglary cases
• FACT 35 Only 1 per cent of fraud in England and Wales results in a criminal justice outcome
• FACT 36 The state is overwhelmingly reliant on the private sector to effectively police art crime
• FACT 37 UK policing structures create an open goal for organised criminals in rural areas
• FACT 38 The UK Serious Organised Crime Strategy (2018) aims to ‘equip the whole of government, the private sector, communities and individual citizens to align their efforts in a single collective endeavour to rid our society of the harms of serious and organised crime’
• FACT 39 The current approach to policing drugs is hypocritical, harmful and ineffective
• FACT 40 The police often overestimate the value of the drugs they seize
• FACT 41 Much of the police’s current approaches to knife crime are wholly ineffective
• FACT 42 In the pursuit of solving crimes against children, children are too often harmed
• FACT 43 Police in England and Wales were responsible for 55 fatal police shootings in the last 24 years, much lower than US counterparts
• FACT 44 Worldwide, the increasing use of militarised policing has been employed against protestors
• FACT 45 Proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 allows for arrest and prosecution, with 93 organisations listed to date
• FACT 46 The police have often attempted to pre-empt cases of political and religious violence through covert intelligence
• FACT 47 Police in England and Wales have, for many decades, intervened more in street sex work than indoor sex work
• FACT 48 In 2021, only 1.6 per cent of rapes reported to police were prosecuted
• FACT 49 Contrary to popular belief, at the end of registered sexual offenders’ prison and community sentences they are managed solely by specialist police officers
• FACT 50 Rape is routinely used as a tool of war, however even in peacetime Military Service Police inadequately report and investigate sexual offences committed by army personnel
• Conclusion
• References
• Index