‘Weeding‘; the archaic process of automatically removing a Police National Computer (PNC) Lost or Stolen (LoS) marker against a vehicle registration mark (VRM) because someone failed to ‘confirm’ the stolen allegation within 6 weeks.
How many stolen vehicles have fallen foul of this process; are stolen but no longer recorded as such?
Gwent Constabulary appears to be the first to have heeded our concerns and ended the process (10/2024). Read more here.
Following our multiple issues with Surrey police, they too threw in the towel writing
- ‘In relation to the policy concerning the confirming of Lost/Stolen vehicle reports on PNC, effective from 13th November, Surrey Police control rooms confirm lost/stolen vehicle reports at point of entry’.
12/2024, Merseyside police explained:
- A LoS report will be added to the PNC after a report of theft of the vehicle has been received. There is guidance in the Manual as to when a LoS report should be added. The PNC Manual provides that a LoS report should be confirmed within 48 hours of the time of the theft. An unconfirmed LoS report will be delated after 6 weeks if not confirmed. There is a process to ensure that an unconfirmed Los report is brought to the attention of the inputting Force.
The above effectively confirms there is a potential problem which, to address, involves further action. But if constabulary staff acted appropriately and ‘confirmed’ reports within 48 hours, a ‘process’ would not be required to warn of imminent, or actual, automatic deletion. Pne constabulary described how they took a while to address the weeded items – there were so many!
How many vehicles, ‘reported’ stolen, are no longer ‘recorded’ stolen because of this archaic, unnecessary system?
- How many people are driving stolen vehicles without knowing this
- ANPR and PNC searches of such VRMs will return ‘clear’ (not stolen) because the stolen marker was weeded and never reinstated?
- Vehicle Provenance companies providing vehicle data/history checks will return ‘not stolen’
- Police recovery rates will be skewed; convey a higher than actual recovery rate
STOP WEEDING NOW!