Majority of Britons want police to focus on current violent crime – Sky Data poll

National Police Chiefs’ Council chairwoman Sara Thornton made headlines after questioning the value of investigating allegations against those who have died and treating misogyny as a hate crime, arguing “they just cannot be priorities for a service that is over-stretched”.

She called for greater action to “solve more burglaries and bear down on violence”.

Some 70% of Britons would support taking police resources from serious historical allegations and instead investigate present day violence crime. Some 21% would oppose such a move, with 9% unsure.

Similarly, 59% would support redirecting resources from investigating gender-based hate crime to focus on violent crime. Some 28% would oppose this, with 13% answering “don’t know”.

Women are slightly less supportive of taking resources from gender-based hate crime – but a majority are still in favour.

The figures show 54% of women would support such a move if the money was used to solve violent crime, compared to 64% of men.

And young people are less likely to support redirecting funds into the prevention of violent crime, though again there is majority support across all age groups.

Half of 18-34-year-olds – 51% – support redirecting funding from investigations into gender-based hate crime and moving them to violent crime, compared with 67% of those aged 55 or over.

Two in three people aged under 35 (65%) would like to see more police time transferred from historical allegations to violent crime, compared with 74% of people older than 54.

Sky Data interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,007 Sky customers by SMS on 1 November, 2018. Data is weighted to the profile of the population.

Sky Data is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

:: Click here to see the full Sky Data tables