How Safe Are We Really?

Last updated on August 17th, 2023 at 09:01 pm

Last updated on August 17th, 2023 at 09:01 pm

I often think “How Safe Are We Really?” I had hoped to write this a week or two ago, when it was slightly more at the forefront, but as in all things, the Met didn’t respond as quickly as they might have done, and decided to withhold some of the information, more on that later.

I’m aware that at least one of my readers isn’t a fan of numbers, but I can’t really do this without numbers so I apologise, but there will be pictures too.

In light of recent events I was aware that people, particularly females, were feeling most uncomfortable, and fearful for their safety, when out at night, and possibly felt that they could no longer trust a Police Officer if they stumbled across one. This due, mainly, to the unspeakably evil acts committed by one person, now locked up for a very long time, and deservedly so.

I had previously tried to add some perspective to the dilemma, and wrote this

I have now had time to pad it out a little, as I genuinely feel that Police Officers in general have been unduly tarnished by the actions of one pervert. Most of them, almost all of them in fact, are perfecty decent people, appalled by the acts of the one.

I tried to get some information out of the Met to demonstrate how unlikely it was, in London at least, that anybody would be seriously assaulted or murdered by a Police Officer.

The question I asked was this:-

For the years 2010 to date how many of the following have been arrested for Murder or Attempted Murder? Police Officers, Politicians, Journalists, Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics/Ambulance Crew, Teachers or Social Workers Simple totals for each is all the detail I require.

What I had hoped to do with this info was demonstrate the scale of the problem and how unlikely it would be to fall foul of another Police Officer.

As is becoming the norm, the good old Met made that as difficult as they could. Their reply:-

For the period requested, a total of eight (8) Attempted Murders and twelve (12) Murders were recorded for the criteria set out in your request.  We have provided total numbers for the professions and period requested.  This is because a breakdown of professions could lead to the identification of individuals due to low numbers, which the MPS considers to be personal information.

Maybe they have a point. Maybe.

However, A total of 8 Attempted Murders and 12 Murders fit the criteria that I asked for. Over almost 11 years.

Those of you still serving in the Met DO NOT log onto CRIS to try and validate this data, I’m almost happy with it as it is. We know of ONE case in the last 11 years, the most recent one.

I certainly don’t remember any others, So I’m happy to assume that in the last 11 years ONE Police Officer (maybe 2 just to be flexible) have been arrested in London for an offence of Murder or Attempted Murder.

That means that over the same period 19 Politicians, Journalists, Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics/Ambulance Crew, Teachers or Social Workers were arrested for similar offences, almost 20 times as many as Police Officers, but where’s the outrage about that?

So much for London, what about that bigger picture? No pun intended but I’ll leave that tale to some pictures to answer, but basically I think that in the UK the situation is not perfect, nowhere is, but I see nothing in the data to make me think that the UK is any more a dangerous place to live and work than many others.

I’ll let you put your own arrows on the last one depending upon where you live or work. A bit of a surprise, one might have expected Londinium to have the highest Murder Rate, but only in sheer numbers, not in Murders per Million Inhabitants.

Apologies, I forgot to add a couple of very important statistics, relationship between Victim and Suspect in the UK

As can be seen from the two charts, if you are a Female, you are FAR more likely to be murdered by somebody that you know than a total, random, stranger.

Finally, don’t have nightmares, the UK is (statistically) one of the safest places to live still, Vatican City might be a bit better but UK is fine although not perfect. And you are extremely unlikely to be Murdered or GBH’d by an Off Duty Police Officer, but if you are that unfortunate please be assured that the Police Service of England and Wales, wherever you live, will do absolutely everything within their powers to identify, arrest and convict the person responsible, who should rightly expect to see the rest of their life out behind bars.