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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

crime

I see the fear of crime has fallen by around 19%. This reflects the fall in crime generally.

It was very encouraging to see 63% of people saying they don't feel afraid going out at night now. Still not good enough but a really marked improvement. All we need now is a few tabloid headlines saying "Crime Down, Fear of Crime down" and the figure might improve some more.

Alas, such headlines don't sell newspapers!

I very much doubt peoples' fears of crime have fallen. Look at how unsafe suburban stations are: murder at Kensal Green, kidnap at South Coulsdon, murder at Welwyn Garden City. Boards spring up all the time warning us of an increase in street crime etc. London is slowly slowly turning into pre-Giuliani New York.

Too much policing is based on retrospective CCTV prosecution rather than prevention which is the only way to really protect the public.

In London the Met has abandoned beat patrols and shut down stations. A few years ago we were told there were 'record numbers' of officers - yet how often are police actually on the beat? Several sources say only around 15%. PCSO are not even police, but civilian with three weeks training - hardly a basis for protecting the public or themselves.

We don't need 'plans' or 'zones' or 'Safer Neighbourhood Teams'. We need fully trained police officers on foot patrol, and open stations. Post-July 7th policing was more visible and intense; yet these weren't 'extra' officers - just police being diverted from paperwork in the office.

Sir Ian Blair is keen on experiments (eg turning a blind eye to cannabis dealing) but reluctant on introducing New York Zero Tolerance. The reason he hates even discussing the latter is that any debate on the topic would invariably raise the question of visible street patrols - and why London doesn't seem to have any. Politicians who work in Westminster see police on the beat all the time, which is why they believe their propaganda of there being 'more' officers on the beat, but outside Central London this is not so .

To Sir Ian Blair's question 'what sort of police service does the public want?' the answer must indeed be 'we want a police service period'.

Hi Clive,

Could you paste a link to the figures, as I cannot find them anywhere.

Regs, Andy

Very insightful post. I write about fraud in general and noted recently how the tape from Bin Laden spurred fears that seem to have driven up oil prices.

The sad thing is that the prices rise before any real damage occurs and it had an adverse effect on the overall economy.

That is, unless you are a member of OPEC, or have your money invested in the oil industry.