Authorities in Scotland have opted to close nearly 23,000 criminal cases, encompassing incidents of shoplifting, theft, and vandalism, without conducting full investigations.

Senior police officials have instructed officers to refrain from pursuing in-depth inquiries into offenses classified as ‘minor,’ particularly when there are no leads, such as surveillance footage, to follow.

Faced with dwindling personnel and budget reductions imposed by the Scottish National Party (SNP) government, police departments have stated they are unable to investigate every crime report they receive.

The data, obtained after a year-long effort by The Mail under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, was only released after an appeal to the office of FOI commissioner David Hamilton.

Scottish Conservative spokesperson for victims and community safety, Sharon Dowey, expressed her concerns, noting that it was hardly surprising that efforts were made to “conceal this information from the public.”

Dowey remarked, “The SNP’s severe budget cuts to policing mean that officers are lacking the necessary resources to address criminal activities effectively.”

‘That lack of support means thousands of crimes are now routinely being written off in what has proven to be the SNP’s latest policy that surrenders to criminals.’

The so-called proportionate response strategy was completed across Scotland in June 2024, despite a major political row.

Police Scotland said 22,373 crimes were ‘directly filed’ under proportionate response, meaning there was no full investigation, between June 2024 and January 2026.

Shoplifting offences were among the 23,000 written off by police 

Scottish Conservatives’ victims and community safety spokesman Sharon Dowey

The force initially refused to provide a breakdown of the categories of crime involved, claiming it might encourage more criminality because offenders would know how police were likely to respond to certain crimes.

But the Scottish Information Commissioner [SIC] intervened when the Mail appealed and the force later handed over the data.

Police Scotland figures show 1,974 shoplifting reports have been ‘directly filed’ or effectively written off so far.

Ther were an additional 8,260 reports of other forms of theft and attempted theft.

And 7,416 reports of vandalism have been treated in the same way.

The breakdown provides details of a wide range of different categories of theft included in the figure of 8,260, such as theft of pedal cycles (1,250), theft from motor vehicles (836), theft from ATMs (32), and ‘theft from person’ (78).

The figures mean 25.3 per cent of reports of bicycle thefts are now ‘written off’ without full investigations, the highest proportion of directly filed offences in the breakdown.

Nine cases of intended theft of a vehicle were ‘directly filed’.

Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell on patrol in Glasgow city centre

There were 4,496 ‘written off’ cases of failing to stop after an accident – equivalent to 18.2 per cent of the total number of all such reports received.

The rest of the ‘directly filed’ cases involved several other forms of crime such as attempting to open a locked motor vehicle ‘with intent’, which accounted for 86 ‘written off’ cases.

Asked how many complaints had been received from the public, Police Scotland said there is ‘no complaint classification that directly aligns to your request’.

Former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher questioned how ‘theft from a person’ could ‘possibly have no lines of enquiry’.

He said: ‘On a wider scale, firstly you will see this largely relates to crimes of dishonesty [such as shoplifting].

‘In these cases, how can someone in a police control room possibly assess what would have been found by a trained and experienced police officer?

‘Door-to-door and crime scene examination do yield results and members of the public are not able to approach individuals for access to CCTV, bus cameras and the like.

‘Criminals are not stupid – they will know these offences are not being investigated and will become emboldened to commit more.’

He said police appeared to be trying to ‘suppress or hide complaints’, adding: ‘Sadly, a day is coming when I fear the public won’t just be asking what is the point of recording crime, but more worryingly what is the point of the police?’

Police Scotland has claimed that refusing to fully investigate thousands of crimes would allow officers to use their time more effectively – and to try to recover from the stress of the job.

But the force has admitted that it is ‘extremely difficult’ to explain how time freed up had been used.

Police Scotland initially refused to provide the information about proportionate response because it does not disclose ‘detection strategies to avoid providing those with criminal intent any advantage when planning or perpetrating any unlawful activities’.

But it later supplied the figures after the Mail appealed to the SIC.

Commenting on the data, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland said: ‘The proportionate response to crime process is not a policy of non-investigation – Police Scotland is committed to investigating crime.

‘Every report of a crime is subject of individual assessment of threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence.

‘If there are no proportionate lines of enquiry that can be pursued, then we will be clear about that with the person who has contacted us.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Every incident reported to Police Scotland continues to be fully assessed and given a proportionate response based on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability.

‘Police Scotland has been clear that the proportionate response applies in cases where there are no investigative opportunities, such as CCTV or witnesses, and in the period in question, only 2.73 per cent of crime reports recorded by Police Scotland were directly filed following this process.’