The vast majority of crimes investigated across Wiltshire will never end up in court, figures show.

Just under 1 in 10 crimes reported to Wiltshire Police result in a charge or summons to appear in court, the Adver can today reveal.

Almost half of cases (43.69%) concluded by the force between April and December 2021 resulted in “evidential difficulties” and never progressed to a court hearing.

It comes as Victim Support, an independent charity that help victims of crime, raised concerns over the impact of the low charge rate on victims coming forward.

Jeffrey DeMarco, assistant director of knowledge and insight at the charity, said low charge rates undermines the confidence of victims in the police and has called for more funding from central government.

Just 1 in 10 crimes go to court

Data released by the government, and analysed by the Adver, shows that there were 2,844 charges or summons issued by Wiltshire Police between April and December 2021 – the most recent available data.

This works out as just 9.89% of the 28,764 reports that police investigated in that time.

Identifying a suspect proved to be a difficulty in more than a third of reports. More than 10,000 investigations (36.01%) were closed down without a suspect ever having been identified.

‘Denied justice’

Jeffrey DeMarco told the Adver that low charge rates can be “extremely distressing” for victims of crime.

He said: “Seeing and hearing about these abysmally low rates will not likely, in the future, build up any narrative in themselves around reporting to the police.

“If they are seeing these low rates and interpreting that as failures, it is very unlikely that is going to contribute to a decision to come forward.”

He said for those that have come forward, it can “lead to them feeling that they’ve been denied justice”.

“Whether or not this is because of the police’s ability or inability, the public is going to lose confidence in the police, and are less likely to co-operate because they don’t see a value in doing it,” he said.

“It’s kind of the whole ‘what’s the point, why should I go through additional traumas just to be let down’.”

When asked about the evidential difficulties police faced, Mr DeMarco added: “All victims have the right for the police to take their reports seriously.

“This suggests more resource and funding needs to go into equipping the police to do this, so one would call on central government to invest in police forces properly.”

‘National issue’

Superintendent Sarah Robbins told the Adver that falling positive outcome rates is a “national issue”.

She said: “Although positive outcome rates falling is a national issue – the average rate for similar size forces is 11.7% - we recognise this might surprise and cause concern for our communities.

“What we want to stress is that we are working incredibly hard to improve these outcome rates by commissioning a number of new teams and utilising existing outcome methods to ensure victims remain at the heart of everything we do.”

Supt Robbins said that the force have created new investigation models, are taking use of better out of court remedies, and creating specialist units to tackle violence against women and girls and county lines. She said they have “made real inroads”.

“We… want our communities to know we will do whatever we can to make improvements to our positive outcome rates," they said.

“It is also important to remember that Wiltshire remains one of the safest places to live in the country and, despite the challenges of Covid and the increasingly diverse nature of the demand policing now faces, we are not seeing an increase in crime overall.”