LOW-level crimes such as thefts have failed to be investigated effectively as the police inspectorate has criticised a “postcode lottery” of policing.

While Wiltshire Police have robust methods in place for dealing with knife crimes, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary found there is little evidence that minor theft reports are attended or investigated.

Action has also been urged after the force was unable to provide details of the number of named suspects in the area who have been arrested or interviewed.

Wiltshire Police have said that their attendance rates for crimes were almost 90 per cent of the total in 2013, with the remainder being dealt with through other methods.

Dru Sharpling, HMIC inspector for the Wales and Western region, said of Wiltshire Police: “The force does not have a policy to attend all reports of crimes and incidents, but assesses all incidents based on an analysis of threat, harm and risk, with supporting mandated question sets for vulnerability.

“Although the force is able to identify how many crimes are recorded directly onto the crime recording system, it is not able to identify how many of those crimes it then goes on to attend.”

In its inspection HMIC reviewed several Wiltshire Police investigations, including reports of crimes that were not attended.

Ms Sharpling said the findings were mixed.

“In certain cases, for crimes such as burglary dwellings, there was clear evidence of investigation and supervision,” she said.

“However, for other offences, such as theft from a motor vehicle, many of which were not attended, there was little evidence of meaningful investigation or supervision.

“The force was unable to provide HMIC with the number of named suspects yet to be arrested or interviewed.

“Without this information, the force may be unable to ensure that it has effective arrangements to manage all of the outstanding named suspects and offenders.

“A small sample of named suspect files, including those circulated as wanted on the police national computer, provided little evidence that activity to locate and apprehend them had been documented or properly supervised.”

However, the inspector had praise for broader aspect of the force’s work.

Ms Sharpling said: “HMIC found some good examples of where the force has undertaken long-term crime prevention initiatives, including a specific knife crime initiative.

“Crime analysts produce effective and detailed intelligence packages which influence preventative work – for example, the identification over 90 serial perpetrators of violence, and predictive policing analysis.”

Deputy Chief Constable Mike Veale, of Wiltshire Police, said the force is now in discussions with the inspectorate over its findings.

He said: “Wiltshire Police supplied data to HMIC regarding our core business figures in relation to attendance but these were not comparable to other forces and were not accepted by HMIC.

“In the 12-month period leading to November 30, 2013, Wiltshire Police attended 88.7 per cent of all live, emergency and priority crimes and incidents.”