March 5, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

CRIME LOOMS LARGE ON ELECTION AGENDA

LONDON, March 5, Graphic News: RISING crime rates and falling police numbers spell trouble for Labour in the run up to a general election.
The recent publication of an international survey showing that the overall crime rate in England and Wales is the second highest in the industrialised world was a body blow for the party that promised to be Òtough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.Ó
The admission by Home Secretary Jack Straw that crime is on the rise makes it certain that law and order -- the only policy area in which the government does not have a big lead in the opinion polls -- will be a central issue at the election.
In some urban areas like London and the West Midlands crimes of violence, including robbery, have increased by nearly 40 percent. In the London borough of Lambeth, only six percent of recorded robberies and eight percent of recorded burglaries were cleared up last year.
Of the small proportion of crimes cleared up, an even smaller number get to court, and a tiny proportion end up with a conviction.
The upsurge is being blamed on a decline in police numbers in England and Wales of 3,000 -- down to 125,000 since the general election in 1997. 
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, is on record as saying that he is unable to police the capital Òwith confidenceÓ until the current downward trend in police numbers is reversed.
Last week saw the latest attempt by Jack Straw to make Labour appear tough on crime. The governmentÕs ten-year plan to combat crime promises to recruit 9,000 more police and to solve an additional 100,000 crimes by 2004.
But StrawÕs strategy has been dealt a further blow in a leaked memo from his most senior policy adviser, Justin Russell. The target ÒdoesnÕt look very impressive. It exposes how poor performance is at the moment and draws attention to the fact that clear-up rates havenÕt improved since 1997.Ó
Voters say they want to see more police on the streets, but only about five percent of policemen are on patrol at any given time. Critics say that more police could be on the beat if less time were spent in police stations filling in forms, and in court waiting for cases to be heard. Others, including David Davies, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons, argue that the thin blue line needs to be bolstered by as many as 30,000 to combat the rise in crime.
Nevertheless, many accept that putting more police on the beat will not have much impact on crime figures.
A single patrolling officer typically covers an area containing almost 8,000 inhabitants, 3,250 households, 10 pubs and four schools.
In order to improve BritainÕs dismal record, Straw wants the police to co-operate more closely with private security companies. The national DNA database is to be tripled from one million to three million offenders.
More controversially, Straw proposes that there should be greater pre-trial disclosure of defence evidence and that defendantsÕ previous convictions should be disclosed to juries -- a suggestion that has angered civil-liberties groups, which see it as yet another example of justice being perverted in an attempt to secure more convictions.
Other measures include ÒCustody PlusÓ -- plans to cut the length of short-term prison sentences in return for increased supervision on release -- and education for illiterate and innumerate prisoners. Drug addicts, who commit more than a third of all property crimes, will receive American-style rehabilitation programmes, not prison.
/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, The Economist, Office for National Statistics