article_snippet: The powers mean The powers can dismiss a crime if the investigation cost outweighs the value of the item stolen or damaged.
article_snippet: MPs, anti-crime campaigners and criminologists who said the scheme handed offenders a ‘licence to steal’ said the police power of ‘discretionary disposal’ could forever change the criminal justice system which was founded on a principle of caution or prosecute.
article_snippet: ‘The crime report will be closed using the Police Discretionary Disposal method as The crime report is not in the public interest to pursue the offender.
article_snippet: Discretionary disposals, created to save policing costs, were first introduced in Northern Ireland and have yet to be widely used on the British mainland.
article_snippet: ’ Nick De Bois, Tory MP of the Justice Select Committee, said the disposals send ‘a signal that crime is OK and will be tolerated at a certain level’, adding: ‘If we let this take root then we are looking at criminal justice from the wrong end of the telescope.
article_snippet: ‘This Government expects all police forces to investigate all crimes reported to all police forces.
article_snippet: Merseyside Police stood by the use of discretionary disposal, which Merseyside Police introduced two years ago, but said Merseyside Police was wrongly applied in Mr Williams’s case – and would make ‘further enquiries’.
highlights_snippet: Police can dismiss crime if investigation cost outweighs value of item stolen .
  