The secret barrister on twitter gives lots of insights.
Apparently the justice system is on its knees. Buidings are falling apart, there are not enough courtrooms, cases keep on having to be postponed to due a lack of staff/facilities, and so on.
Then there's the havey police cuts. I remember one copper pleading with May to not make heavy cuts because it wil mean they can no longer be proactive. It seems that is exactly what happened.
Must be Sadiq Khan's fault, though.
His books well worth a read, the legal system is being dismantled before our eyes (which is affecting ones ability to get a fair trial as much as actually sentencing those who are guilty - he presents a frankly terrifying hypothetical (albeit based upon experience) case of someone innocent being convicted purely down to the state of the system and the lack of proper representation if you cannot afford it) and yet those who witter on about being tough on crime, still keep voting for the party that have been doing the systematic dismantling!
Another few thousand coppers along with an iron fist approach to sentencing isn’t going to change a thing.
As noted elsewhere, the number of coppers is considerably greater than in the era that those of a misty eyed nature like to get excited about, the only real increase in the last 50 odd years happened 2000-2010 under Labour (which has almost entirely been rolled back), not the party of 'law and order'.