F_ckers. You know that this means no crime recorded, keeps the crime figures low, gives the impression that they are doing a good job which is sooooo not true.
I know that a lot of these threads turn into a "police not doing their job" thing, but I just have to say that not every police officer is a lazy jobsworth who fiddles the figures to make themselves and the force look good. I am sure that the majority are good people who really want to do their job of upholding the law. The problem is that the target culture cascading down on them from above (ie from government) is driving a lot of what they can and can't do.
It's also a difficult job to do as someone has already said, where there are no witnesses to corroborate a story - imagine if you were wrongly accused and the police assumed that you were lying because they believed the alleged victim? I think we sometimes see things as "right" and "wrong" and expect the police to just "know" without evidence...
Note that I have not looked at this specific case yet, so the above is not based on that, but is a general observation on the police force. I also fully understand that there are many people (cyclists) who have been abused and assaulted and have not been able to get justice and they will have a different view.