Thousands of violent crime suspects are on the loose as police have evidence to arrest them

Thousands of suspects in violent crimes, including murder, remain at large for months or even years after police had enough evidence to arrest them, a Mirror investigation can reveal.

Half of the country’s police forces have given us figures that show they have failed to arrest a total of 5,306 suspects for recent and historic crimes, some dating back 20 years. The nationwide number will be even higher. The conservatives were accused of losing “all control over public order”.

The political parties say we need more police, including police officers. Just over 3,000 of the arrest warrants from the 24 police forces that provided us with the figures have been outstanding for more than nine months. Thursday marks the first anniversary of the fatal shootings of Valdo Calocane in Nottingham.

A warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to appear in court in 2022 for an alleged assault on a police officer. He was never arrested on the warrant and nine months later he went on a rampage through the city, killing 65-year-old Ian Coates and his friends Barnaby Webber and 19-year-old Grace O’Malley-Kumar.

This year, Calocane, 32, was sentenced to indefinite hospitalization after admitting manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. The Interior Ministry declined to comment on individual cases, but said the handling of outstanding arrest warrants was an operational matter for police. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “After 14 years of Conservative government, criminals get away with it. Arrests have halved since 2010 and dangerous predators have been left on the streets.

“The Conservative Party has lost all grip on law and order. It is time to turn the page on the Conservatives’ criminal chaos. One of the Labor Party’s core missions is to make our streets safe again. The next Labor government will put local policing back on track and tackle detective shortages with a new accelerated recruitment programme.”

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “The public will be outraged that thousands of suspected violent criminals are on the run while the Tories leave frontline police overworked and underfunded. Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to true community policing where officers are visible and have time to focus on preventing and solving crimes. The Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.

The Conservatives are pledging to recruit 8,000 extra officers over the next three years, on top of the 20,000 recruited since 2019. But this came after 20,000 officers left the service between 2010 and 2019 during budget cuts under the conservatives. The Metropolitan Police, the UK’s largest force, had the largest number of arrest warrants of at least nine months.

She told us she had 1,456 arrest warrants for violent crimes dating back more than nine months, including 137 for murder. The Met said: “London is a global city with a population of almost nine million, with people constantly moving in and out of the capital, presenting a huge policing challenge in tracing individuals.

“The arrest of these wanted offenders is a priority for the Met. We work with partners at the local, national and international levels, using all available tactics, to bring them to justice. Forces with the highest number per person of arrest warrants of nine months or more for violent crime include Cambridgeshire Police with 106 and Police Scotland with 590.