Murder, child abduction and modern slavery - More than one million crimes remain unsolved in West Mercia Police force area
More than a million crimes, such as murder, child abduction, modern slavery and arson endangering life, remain unsolved by police in our region.
Figures obtained by the Shropshire Star shows that officers have been unable to close 1,119, 890 cases spanning a period of 27 years.
This means there were on average 41,477 crimes a year in the West Mercia Police force area that have gone unsolved since 1988.
Five murders remain unsolved, 14 attempted murders, 673 cases of threat or conspiracy to murder, 1,127 cases of threats to kill and nine of manslaughter.
Police chiefs for West Mercia Police force said today there were many reasons why some crimes lie on file, from lack of evidence or when a suspect was below the age limit. Other crimes that remain unresolved including 34 cases of abuse of children through prostitution and pornography and five cases of modern slavery.
A total of 246 cases of kidnapping remain unsolved, 229 of blackmail, seven abductions and 125 cases of child abduction, 15 of these took place this year.
There were also 73 cases of a person absconding from custody.
Many unsolved crimes relate to cases of violent and sexual offences – including more than 2,000 rapes of women and 915 reports of rape of girls under 16.There were 69 cold cases concerning rape of men and almost 200 of boys under 16.
This would be when every avenue of investigation was exhausted but there was still insufficient evidence.
The highest numbers of unsolved offences were concerning theft, with more than 160,000, theft from a vehicle, at a total of 147,178, and burglary at 89,000.
The single crime dating back to 1988 was for a fraud offence.
Connie Osborne, of West Mercia Police, reminded people that all investigations could be reopened.
Other reasons why cases were classified as unsolved could be due to a key witness or victim no longer wanting to support prosecution.
She said: "We also look at other ways to ensure lower level incidents are dealt with. This may be through crime prevention and local policing initiatives which encourage the public to keep themselves and their belongings safe and negate the risk of crime.
