Man hit with biscuit recorded as a “violent crime” by Norfolk police

Independent Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk Constabulary Stephen Bett . Photo: Steve Adams

A man being hit with a biscuit and a child being brushed with a stinging nettle – just two of the “jaw dropping” examples of incidents that police in Norfolk are now having to record as violent crimes.

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Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner has today revealed to the Eastern Daily Press some of the most staggering incidents that police have had to record as being violent in the past year, during which time Norfolk has seen a 14pc rise in overall crime.

Ahead of a public police meeting last month, Mr Bett pledged to challenge Norfolk’s chief constable Simon Bailey in a bid to get “reassurances over what’s behind this rise”.

He was told that due to a change in the way the force had to record certain crimes, following a renewed focus on the accuracy of crime recording which has come under intense national scrutiny, numerous incidents are now falling into the violent crime category. Mr Bett asked the force to provide him with examples over the past 12 months including:

• A young child was bought a boxing glove by his parents. He was swinging it round and caught his small sibling with it. This was recorded as Actual Bodily Harm (ABH).

• A woman threw a biscuit at a man which hit him leaving a small red mark. This was recorded as an ABH.

• Two children were playing together and one brushed a stinging nettle across the others arm. This was recorded as an ABH

• Two children were playing together doing wheelies on bikes. Whilst doing this one of them rides into his mate. This was recorded as an assault.

• A member of the public reported seeing a mum slap her three- year-old child on the hand as they left a shop. The police investigated and it transpired that the child had taken a bar of chocolate from the shop and hidden it in their clothes. The mum gave the child a single slap on the hand and made them return the chocolate bar to the shop. The police had to record this as an assault by the mum on the child and shoplifting by the child.

• Several members of staff were scratched at a care home. Each scratch was recorded as an ABH so there were five priority violent crimes out of one incident.

The police used to deal with ‘malicious communications’ as non-crimes. They relate to any offensive text or letter sent to people and now an extra 183 offences have fallen into the volume violence band since April.

The vast majority of these involve people sending texts. This could add more than 1,000 violent crimes a year in Norfolk.

Mr Bett said: “You could not make this up – it’s jaw dropping. I am sure people will find these examples of what the police are having to record as violent crime hard to believe, to say the least. I frankly couldn’t believe what I was reading. Is it any wonder we have seen a rise in recorded violent crime in Norfolk if these types of incidents are having to be logged? The last thing I want to do is to trivialise any incident where there is a victim but I am struggling to see how someone being hit by a biscuit or brushed by a stinging nettle fits anyone’s idea of a violent crime.

“I think people will also be surprised that text messages are also ‘violent’. There is a danger that when people see a raw headline that violent crime is up in Norfolk that fear of crime could rise. That is why I feel it is important to highlight this issue and make people aware.”

The issue was raised at the Police Accountability Forum – at which the commissioner regularly holds the chief constable to account in public – which was held on May 13.

A spokesman for Norfolk police said: “National crime recording standards give the police a duty to record these incidents as crimes.

“However, we have a measured approach to how we deal with them. Just because we record these as crimes, it will not always be appropriate to arrest or seek to prosecute the alleged offenders. It is very much dependant on the individual circumstances of each report.”

Mike Penning, minister of state for policing, crime, criminal justice and victims, said: “This home secretary has done more than any other to ensure that crime statistics are independent, accurate and can be trusted by the public. This includes making previously hidden and under-reported crimes a priority, commissioning Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to inspect the quality of crime recording, and holding forces to account on delivering accurate statistics.

“It is the responsibility of individual forces to accurately record crimes in accordance with strict Home Office counting rules – and HMIC inspects forces to ensure they are recording crimes appropriately.”

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