Leicestershire Police says policy has not changed after deputy mayor of Leicester said officers are questioning arrests due to early prison release scheme

Some police officers in Leicester are questioning making arrests due to the overcrowded prison situation, the city’s deputy mayor has claimed.

Coun Sarah Russell, who is deputy to mayor of Leicerster Peter Soulsby’s deputy, made the claim at the police, fire and crime panel on Monday. However today (October 29) the force’s chief constable Rob Nixon has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, this is not the case.

Labour’s Coun Russell, who represents the Westcotes ward, told Leicestershire police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews (Con) that city police officers had told her they did not see a point in making arrests due to their view that criminals would be released shortly afterwards.

Due to a shortage of prison spaces the Labour government has made the decision to release prisoners early to make room for those newly sentenced by the courts.

In September 1,700 prisoners were released early and there was a second release of 1,100 last week.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that figures would be released later in the year about how many of those released had then been recalled to prison after breaking their conditions.

Coun Russell said: “I just wondered about some of the communications and whether your office is involved at all around communication out to the wider force, and whether you could seek to hold the chief constable to account around this in that certainly a lot of the feedback I get from officers on the ground is not necessarily a full understanding of the release scheme and a bit of sense of and I’m paraphrasing, I’m not directly quoting, but a ‘well there isn’t any point in arresting because they will only go into prison for two days and be released anyway’.

"I just worry about the messaging and what that means to our forces on the ground and their confidence to be able to carry out their roles appropriately.”

Mr Matthews said in meetings with Mr Nixon he had understood it was ‘business as usual’.

Mr Matthews said: “The public need to be reassured that the criminal justice system may have some hiccups but we are all working for safe and prosperous communities and that does involve arresting, charging and convicting criminals whenever we can do so.”

But after hearing from independent panel member Parisha Chavda, who said the officers needed to be told that things should continue as before, he said that he would bring the issue up with the chief constable.

He said: “As far as I am aware I am seeing it being done but I’m not aware of the precise mechanism for it being done.”

Mr Nixon said: “The work of Leicestershire Police has not changed since the prison early release scheme began. Protecting our communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland remains at the heart of everything we do.

“A vital part of our service is ensuring we deal with those who cause the most harm and so continuing to arrest people, where necessary, in order to carry out a full and detailed investigation remains very much part of our daily business.”

A report considered by the panel outlined what has been happening in the Leicester and Rutland region as part of the early release situation. A collective called the Prison Capacity Gold group, which is made up of local organisations such as the police, probation, defence solicitors and prison governors, was set up in March under the former Conservative government and meets weekly to discuss prison capacity. This reports regularly to the regional criminal justice board.

The report said the police commissioner’s officer will use spare capacity to work with the probation service to signpost men aged under 25 to services to prevent a recall to prison. The report also said: “To date there has been no significant increases in crime volumes caused by the early release scheme.”