The theft coincided with government’s release of prisoners to address jail overcrowding.
Irony struck hard when Dame Diana Johnson, the UK’s police and crime minister, had her purse stolen from a hotel where she was speaking to senior police officers at a government conference. This incident raised concerns about efficiency and security, according to the BBC.
The news portal further reported that thieves struck, while Dame Diana blamed the Conservatives for an “epidemic of antisocial behaviour, theft, and shoplifting” at the annual Police Superintendents’ Association conference. A 56-year-old man from Coventry has been arrested on suspicion of burglary and released on bail in connection to the incident, Warwickshire Police said. The Home Office confirmed that Johnson had her belongings stolen at the conference and said that no security risks had been identified.
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According to The Financial Times, the theft came on the same day that the government began releasing some prisoners early to deal with jail overcrowding in England and Wales. The strains on the criminal justice system have been worsened by an outbreak of rioting in August. PSA president Nick Smart, in his address to the conference, decried “chronic underinvestment” in policing in recent years that he said had left forces “financially drowning” and “operating on a shoestring.”.
Nick Smart criticised the handling of overcrowding in prisons and prisoner releases, saying police officers faced “the prospect of arresting offenders who can then not be placed in prison and dealing with the fallout from the thousands of criminals being released early today, many potentially without proper rehabilitation and release plans.”
