A CONTROVERSIAL power has been used for crimes including rape and kidnap despite a review prompted by the Advertiser.
Chief Superintendent Gavin Stephens announced a review earlier this year after the Advertiser revealed effective resolution – a scheme under which offenders and victims of a crime can agree no further action will be taken – was used 10,000 times from June 2008 to February 2012.
The review concluded officers must give victims a "cooling off" period before using the power, and senior officers must be consulted in cases raising public safety issues like violence.
But a Freedom of Information request revealed the power was used more than 2,500 times from February 1 to October 31 including 345 assaults resulting in injury.
A police spokesman said: "Every crime has a unique set of circumstances and a clear context, against which police officers make a decision using their professional judgement.
"These figures must be treated with caution as crime category headings do not give a full picture of the individual circumstances when effective resolution was applied.
"For example a firearms offence may relate to the use of a toy gun whilst some sexual offences refer to experimentation by teenagers."
Surrey's new police and crime commissioner Kevin Hurley said he would be investigating whether the power is being used appropriately.
The issue came to the Advertiser's attention when the power was used for a vicious attack which left a 40-year-old man unconscious in a pub toilet in Ashtead.
Former police inspector Mike Ledwidge, of Dorking, used to train Surrey Police officer in restorative justice, on which the power is loosely based.
In restorative justice victims are able to meet offenders who attempt to repair the harm done, but he thinks effective resolution is a poor substitute.
"There shouldn't be cases as big as that slipping through the cracks," he said.
"It's just a way of writing off offences by the sound of it, which is a shame because to me it is an opportunity to do some good and it's an opportunity that's not been taken up because my guess is that officers are not trained properly."
But he said the majority of offences are likely to be minor and only recorded due to government target setting.
"In this area you've got to be careful about lambasting the police," he said.
"Stuff like nasty violent assaults by complete strangers for the fun of it, I'm guessing there's not that many."
