The Police Federation’s pay and morale report said officers surveyed were struggling with the cost of living and dissatisfied with their pay. It found that 12 per cent of officers polled wanted to resign from Cumbria Police in the next two years or as soon as they can. The survey also found that 78 per cent of Cumbria Police officers feel ‘worse off’ financially now than they were five years ago and 14 per cent ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ have enough money to cover all their essentials. And 72 per cent of respondents from Cumbria Police said that they would not recommend joining the po ..read more

A woman has been charged with the murder of a baby boy found dead in Cheshire more than 26 years ago. Joanne Sharkey, 54, will appear in court on Tuesday over the death of the infant, whose body was discovered in a bin bag in woodland near the Gulliver’s World theme park in Warrington, in March 1998. Cheshire Police launched a murder investigation, but no arrests were made until a man and woman were detained in July 2023. Ms Sharkey, from West Derby in Liverpool, had been on bail since then but was re-arrested and charged on Monday. The baby was given the name “Callum” after his death as his ..read more

The partners of all gun licence applicants are being asked questions for the first time as five police forces in England and Wales seek to strengthen licensing processes. The forces – Gwent, the Metropolitan Police, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire – are testing a questionnaire designed to build a more detailed picture of anyone who wants to own a gun, with a particular focus on domestic abuse. The initiative, called Project Titanium, has been developed by Gwent Police with the help of domestic abuse survivors. It has already resulted in some applications being refused or existin ..read more

Police Scotland will no longer investigate every low level crime after the success of a pilot scheme. A report says the new approach to certain reported offences where there is no CCTV or witnesses should be rolled across Scotland. It follows the success of a 12-week trial in the north east which allowed officers to focus on other priorities. The trial freed up 2,657 police officer hours, the Proportionate Response to Crime report said. During the pilot, 5% of crime reports in A Division (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray) were recorded and filed for no further inquiry following an assessment ..read more

A mass screening of thousands of police personnel records has unearthed 461 cases classed as serious enough to need assessing by a senior officer. The ‘historic data wash’ – carried out after a damning report following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer – revealed nine cases which required criminal investigation. Five were police officers at the rank of chief inspector or below, with one case involving alleged sexual offences, one claim of drugs offences and two accusations of fraud. Four members of police staff are also facing criminal investigations, with two involvin ..read more

Commander praises officers who ‘volunteered to stand alone in dark streets in the middle of the night, waiting to be robbed’ A covert police operation in London involving undercover officers flaunting brands such as Rolex in the hope they would be targeted by criminals has helped cut luxury watch robberies by nearly half, Scotland Yard has said. Metropolitan police officers loitered around the capital’s most swish nightclubs and restaurants and lured would-be robbers by posing with timepieces worth tens of thousands of pounds. When anyone attempted to steal the watches they were arrested by hi ..read more

Police forces are still being damaged by government cuts, with 6,000 officers having to work away from frontline crime fighting to fill gaps caused by a funding crisis, police chiefs have said. Gavin Stephens, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said police were cutting crime but faced severe funding pressures and a £3.2bn cash shortfall. The Conservative-led government slashed police budgets from 2010, leading to a reduction of 20,000 officers. It then reversed course after a 2019 manifesto commitment and recruited the same number lost, under a programme known as the police upli ..read more

The Home Office has announced plans to “modernise” spiking laws in a move it claims will help bring perpetrators to justice. But experts said the changes will not make any difference without simultaneous investment in police training and other measures to improve the handling of cases on the ground. Under plans unveiled this weekend, the government will amend the criminal justice bill to make clear that spiking is illegal. It is also drawing up new guidance to provide an “unequivocal” definition of the crime. Officials said the changes would update the 1861 Offences against the Person Act to e ..read more

Misconduct is under-reported in Police Scotland and the force is failing to challenge unacceptable behaviour, a watchdog has warned. A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) also found trainee officers feel “ill-equipped” to deal with the the job. It recognises continued budget pressures and a lack of investment. But HMICS praised efforts to address “key workforce issues” as well as a focus on ethics and human rights. The new report, HMICS Inspection of Organisational Culture within Police Scotland, warns of an unwillingness to challenge unacceptable behaviour and highli ..read more

Prison governors say it is now “inevitable” that jails will run out of space, as judges were reportedly ordered to delay sentencing criminals to avoid overwhelming the system. Justice secretary Alex Chalk was scrambling to find ways to alleviate the crisis, as he met with criminal justice representatives to “ensure that we can continue to strengthen public protection by locking up the most dangerous criminals”. But the Prison Governors Association (PGA) told The Independent it believed “without a shadow of a doubt” that prison spaces are going to run out, with so little slack in the system tha ..read more