Whilst summing up after sentencing a father and two sons for GBH on a man who criminally damaged their car, Judge Bray remarked; "Nobody bothers to phone the police anymore. They go round and sort it out themselves - and I know why. It's because the police no longer come round so people go out themselves and deal with it."

This case involved the above family going to a neighbour's address and assaulting him, leaving him with serious injuries. Matthew Sinclair of The Tax Payers Alliance commented; "This will continue so long as the police are forced to respond to the priorities of politicians rather than ordinary people. They'll spend more time trying to meet arbitrary and distorting targets than trying to catch serious criminals."

Notwithstanding Northamptonshire Constabulary's statement that they wouldn't comment on Judge Bray's remarks because they were never called by the father and two sons in the first instance and so could not possibly comment on why they did not respond. None of the defendants made a comment to the media either.  Perhaps, Mr Sinclair's analysis is true after all.

Criticism should not be directed at Judge Bray for speaking out against the police or the Home Office. In 2007, the same Judge told the then Home Secretary that he could take a hike if he thought he would follow instructions to only jail the most serious offenders. He said he was, "well aware of overcrowding but that is not going to prevent me from passing proper sentences in each case." He sounds like my kind of Judge. He's now on my list of 'Judges I like.' In fact, he's the only one.

However, leaving Home Office interference aside, this still leaves us with the accusation that we don't attend incidents and, even if we do, there is still a question over whether we will conduct a reasoned and proportionate investigation for non-priority crimes.

Quite simply, there are not enough uniformed officers on the streets to provide an effective response to requests for police attendance. Judging by the remarks other police officers make and through my own professional experience, patrol teams are at minimum strength.

The same is true for CID. It is not uncommon for a Detective to be dealing with 20 crimes at any one time. They also have to determine from the initial evidence what is actually worth investigating. This is because they know that the CPS will not so much as entertain a charge if the case is not all but conclusive from the outset.

If Judge Bray, Mr Sinclair, the public, and a serving police officer are wrong in their assertions, ask yourself this; would you bother calling the police if you were the victim of a non-priority crime? How confident would you be that it would be investigated?

If you live in Surrey, knowing that the Force will be 50 officers lighter next year, I'm guessing the answers would be 'NO' and 'NOT AT ALL' respectively.

Inspector Leviathan will be giving Police Oracle readers his take on current topics on a weekly basis.

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