The Metropolitan Police will scale back its enforcement of tag conditions as it warned criminal justice pressures “cannot always fall on policing”.
Under a new pilot scheme, officers will not respond to curfew or tag batteries breaches lasting less than an hour unless the person is considered a particular risk to the public, Sky News reported.
The Met will still review the cases but arrest will only be considered if there is risk or safeguarding concerns, according to the outlet.
High risk offenders such as domestic abusers will be prioritised, the force said.
The scheme runs until spring and will only apply to those on court bail.
“Where offenders have briefly stepped outside for a cigarette, or police are notified 19 hours later that they were 15 minutes late returning home, tying up several officers for hours is not the best use of resources”, a Met spokesperson said.
Britain’s largest police force responds to more than 100 tagging breaches a day and many are low-level with no consequences in the court system.
Earlier this month Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned that “95%-plus of the tagging breaches that we arrest are simply being bailed back into the community on the same condition, so there is zero sanction”.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley (Ben Whitley/PA)
PA Wire
In such cases, the Met and its partners are looking at the most appropriate penalties or consequences in order that police time can be better focused.
The Met spokesperson said: “We understand the pressures across the criminal justice system.
“To best protect the public, those pressures cannot always fall on policing and certainly not without prioritisation.
“Where there is a risk to the public, particularly if someone is breaching conditions designed to protect a victim, we will absolutely respond.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse.
“If we had failed to act, the police would have been forced to halt arrests, putting communities at untold risk.
“We will never jeopardise public safety. That is why we are putting thousands more neighbourhood police officers onto our streets, upping police funding to £18.5 billion and taking investment in the probation service to record levels.
“To manage offenders out on licence, we are rolling out the toughest-ever controls, including world-first restriction zones, the largest expansion of electronic tagging, and giving victims a say in licence conditions.”