Take Policing back to Community roots say Lib Dems

10.22.57am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 24th Feb 2004

Liberal Democrats have launched a new national policy paper on policing local communities. The paper 'A Force to be Reckoned With: Equipping our police to fight 21st century crime' seeks to readdress the local balance of community policing and increase the visibility of the police on the streets.

The Liberal Democrats say that the police in areas such as Brighton and Hove still lack the resources they need to properly address reoccurring issues such as street drinking in Norfolk Square.

Lib Dem City Council Group Leader, Councillor Paul Elgood said:

"Successive governments have seen policing and society's response to crime as high priorities, and over the last two decades there has been an avalanche of criminal justice legislation. At the same time, the governance of the police has been under scrutiny, with major reforms of the police authorities introduced by Michael Howard under the last Conservative government, and constant evolution of the management and conditions of service of police officers."

"Despite the close attention of the Home Secretary of the day, however, crime and the fear of crime has continued to be a major public concern. Crime doubled during the period of the last Conservative government, and although the British Crime Survey indicates there has been a welcome fall in some categories of crime (notably burglary and vehicle crime) over the last few years, it is of concern that violent and gun crime are on the increase."

"Of at least as great concern, however, is the public perception of policing in their own areas. Despite, belatedly, increasing police numbers, there is a high degree of public dissatisfaction with levels of policing, and there is a widespread view that the police are neither providing a satisfactory level of service in inner-city areas where prevalence of street crime and violence is high, nor are they seen as providing any level of service beyond emergency response in rural England and Wales where recorded crime levels are low but fear of crime is at its highest in living memory and people feel increasingly isolated and unprotected. This picture is borne out by a recent Audit Commission report, which found that only one in five people were happy with the level of local police presence; while the most recent British Crime Survey (2002/03) found that 34% of people felt unsafe walking alone in their area after dark."

The proposals include:

National Tier

• A new National Police Agency to fight national and international crime

• A new National Border Force to ensure the safety and integrity of our national borders

• A new Financial Crime Directorate to more effectively target white-collar crime

Local Policing

• More representative police authorities to provide for better democratic accountability

• An enhanced scrutiny role for police authorities to ensure police forces meet public expectations

• A new Local Policing Contract to ensure levels of service for each area

• Sectoral Reporting to bring policing closer to local people

Police Visibility

• Reduced abstractions of local police to major crime elsewhere

• Techno-cops to reduce paperwork and release police to the streets

• Best Practice Assurance to reduce red-tape and increase operational flexibility

• More custody suites to reduce travel and encourage arrests

• Keeping local courts so fewer officers are out of area at trials and local justice is maintained

• Retained officers to provide more visible policing in rural areas

• Parish-controlled Community Support Officers with enhanced traffic powers

• Intelligent Patrol to ensure that beat officers provide the maximum reassurance

• Using Experience to release front-line police to do the job for which they're trained

• Named Local Beat Officers to improve relationships between local communities and their local police and enhance the status of the beat officer

• Direct contributions through the licensing system from establishments or event organisers whose activities incur substantial increases in the costs of off-site policing