LETTER: That’s one way to bring down crime

The outcome of this was to be told the police were to take no further action due to a conflicting statement by the perpetrator, lack of CCTV evidence and witnesses.

All of which, as the police explained to me, meant no further action would be taken.

I cannot believe that so little investigation was done and how the police are so reliant on CCTV evidence these days; for them it is a very hard job nowadays as it would seem in this high tech age we live in it has become even harder for them to do their job.

As I understood, after the matter was explained, my account of the incident just would not stand up in court and the defence would make mince meat out of me.

To charge an individual nowadays I am to understand all the ‘ducks need to be in a row’ and the evidence needs to be ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ If you have no CCTV or witness statements then the perpetrator gets off scot free!

And, may I add, the victim has to carry the added load of feeling like they are to be blamed for the crime as well.

Recently in the news I noticed a claim by the police service that the crime rate was going down, but I beg to differ.

It has just become so difficult to prove anything criminals just are just not getting charged through lack of water tight evidence.

This was confirmed when a colleague of mine was speaking to a local solicitor. When asked if he was busy, he replied no, not really.

My colleague then said, is everyone behaving themselves at the moment then. The solicitor replied no ,the police are not charging as many people.

I am very concerned if this is indeed the state of play regarding crime. For us as a country it doesn’t really look good, if the legal system is being allowed to be so powerful in defending these criminals and if charging them relies so heavily on CCTV evidence what chance do any of us have?

And how hard must it be for the police force, knowing that they cannot fulfil their role properly due to this?

Toni Gaunt

Wellhouse Lane
Mirfield