Police chiefs issue warning to Home Secretary Suella Braverman following order to investigate every theft

Mr Stephens said that while he welcomed the government’s commitment to recruit 20,000 police officers in England and Wales, he pointed out that since 2010, the first year of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the number of police officers has only increased by 2.6% – compared with a 25% increase in recorded crime.

The NPCC chair described neighbourhood policing as the “bedrock”, adding: “We believe that the number of neighbourhood officers should be increased.”

The commitment to follow all reasonable lines of inquiry – agreed by the Home Office, the NPCC and the College of Policing – comes as part of a “crime week” of policy announcements planned by the government.

‘Criminals must have no place to hide’

In her announcement, Ms Braverman said she had “heard too many accounts from victims where police simply haven’t acted on helpful leads because crimes such as phone and car thefts are seen as less important”, adding: “That’s unacceptable.

“It has damaged people’s confidence in policing. Criminals must have no place to hide.”

Labour branded the announcements a “staggering admission of 13 years of Tory failure on policing and crime”.

“Pursuing reasonable leads like CCTV is what the police should be doing, but – because of abysmal Tory management – over 90% of crimes go unsolved, the proportion of crimes prosecuted has dropped by more than two thirds and more criminals are getting off,” a Labour spokesperson said.

“The fact that the Tories are boasting about asking the police to do the basic minimum that victims of crime should rightly expect, whilst failing to tackle the underlying problems they have caused shows how badly they have failed over the last 13 years.”