Don’t let people off in the event that they steal meals in desperation, minister tells police | Police

The policing minister, Equipment Malthouse, has disputed the suggestion of the chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, that the price of living crisis will trigger an increase in crime, branding it “old-fashioned” considering.

As inflation hit a 40-year high of 9%, Cooke said on Wednesday that officers should use their “discretion” when deciding whether to prosecute individuals who steal to be able to eat.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday, Malthouse, a longtime ally of Boris Johnson, said Cooke’s considering was “old school”, including: “Because persons are challenged financially … that doesn’t necessarily imply they’re going to turn to crime.”

The chief inspector of constabulary is the pinnacle of the independent assessor of police forces in England and Wales. Cooke, a former chief constable of Merseyside police, took over from Sir Tom Winsor in the position final month.

Malthouse has instructed officers to not let shoplifters off if they are stealing food out of desperation during the price of living crisis.

He later told LBC, ministers would ensure police do not turn a blind eye to shoplifters stealing meals.

“In fact I wrote to chief constables just a 12 months or so in the past saying they should not be ignoring these seemingly small crimes,” he said.

Earlier, the minister advised Occasions Radio: “The broad rule is that justice ought to be blind and I hope and imagine that is the precept that sits behind not just the police but the operation of the courts as effectively.

“I have to problem this connection between poverty and crime. What we’ve discovered prior to now, and where there is now rising evidence, is that actually crime is a contributor to poverty. That if you take away the violence and the crime from folks’s lives they generally prosper more than they in any other case would.”

Cooke had earlier stated: “The affect of poverty, and the affect of lack of alternative for folks, does result in a rise in crime. There’s no two ways about that.”

When requested how policing might avoid being seen because the arm of an uncaring state, he mentioned forces across England and Wales had been expert in coping with the tensions and dynamics of their communities.

“What they’ve received to remember is what is the best thing for the community, and that individual, in the way they deal with those issues. And I certainly absolutely assist police officers using their discretion – and they need to use discretion extra typically.”