Police brand four out of ten crimes 'unsolvable' just hours after they are reported
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Summary

November 11, 2007: Four out of ten crimes reported in the United Kingdom are quickly written off by the police because they don't have the manpower to deal with them.

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Game and Story Use

  • Useful to know for a campaign that involves crimes or police and is set in the United Kingdom.
  • Can be used to justify a campaign in which characters operate outside the law and aren't immediately subject to pursuit by the full power of a modern developed world police force.
    • Bearing in mind that the police will be less likely to write off serious and violent crimes and will probably devote more resources to solving them. If your car is stolen, that's likely to be your problem, the theft of an enormous gemstone probably less so.
    • A more jaundiced or dystopian interpretation might see the police failing to investigate crimes against some specific social groups and being disproportionately responsive to the complaints of others. Who those groups might be will be dependant on your dystopia.
    • Likewise, if "unpoliced" areas exist in the setting, anything going on in them is likely to be regarded as unsolvable far more readily than otherwise (and this is history and news as well as speculative fiction).
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