Just 37 per cent of voters believe the police are doing a good job, a survey has revealed as Britons lose faith following a spate of scandals and a rise in offences.
More than a third say they have no faith in the authorities to maintain law and order, according to the poll by YouGov.
Statistics show that more than half of the public do not trust the police to solve crimes.
The results come as Britain faces record court backlogs, worsening detection rates and overflowing prisons.
Just 37 per cent of voters believe the police are doing a good job, a survey has revealed
GETTYThe devastating lack of confidence also follows the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan police officer, Wayne Couzens and the jailing of the serial rapist David Carrick, who was a member of the firearms unit.
Shocking figures show that more than a third of people think it is unlikely that a perpetrator would be arrested and prosecuted if they reported a sexual assault.
While just 26 per cent believe the police would arrest and prosecute someone if they were burgled and seven per cent are confident a pickpocket would be caught.
Dame Sharon White, the chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership said shoplifting was now the "number one thing" for a lot of retailers.
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"It’s organised. I was in one of our Waitrose stores. They said they had a couple of people who came into the store and there was a very particular brand of gin that they wanted to shoplift," she told The Times.
"We didn’t have the brand in store and they said ‘oh don’t worry, we know you’re going to be replenished over the weekend so we’ll come back early next week’. There was a brazenness. It was shoplifting to order."
She added: "Unless somebody is dealing with your supposedly low-level crime issues, it creates enormous issues for faith and trust in the broader criminal justice system."
Peter Clarke, the former head of counterterrorism at the Metropolitan Police said some retired officers feel "disappointed and quite angry" about recent scandals.
Statistics show that more than half of the public do not trust the police to solve crimes
PAHe said: "Policing should never have been stereotyped by the so-called canteen culture. It should also always be about compassion, courage, courtesy and doing things for the community."
A Home Office spokesman said: "As the home secretary has previously said, society cannot function properly when trust in the police is eroded. Officers at every level must play their part in improving standards and delivering for the public they serve.
"We are also doing our bit: recruiting more officers to keep the public safe; securing commitments from the police to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry and attend every home burglary; as well as making it easier to sack officers who are unfit to serve.
"Since 2010 crime, excluding fraud and computer misuse is down 55 per cent, but we know confidence in the police is too low. Policing have rightly faced a watershed moment and we are committed to working with them to regain the confidence of the public by relentlessly focusing on tackling the crimes that impact our communities."
