Tackling Street Crime

Written by Graham Tope on Mon 25th Feb 2002

Recent high profile, violent incidents, such as the murder of a London estate agent, carjacking incidents and young people being stabbed for their mobile phones, make it easy to believe that London has been swamped by a crime wave.

No one can deny that violent crime and the rise in street crime are not causes for great concern. But the GLA Liberal Democrats, along with senior police officers and criminologists, think the concerns of the public, though highly understandable, are disproportionate to the actual risk.

On average we are less likely to be victims of crime than a few years ago, thanks to falling crime levels, and the fear of crime is still greater than the actual chances of being a victim. Politicians - in particular members of the Conservative party - play a dangerous game when they fan the flames of public insecurity and fuel this fear.

The GLA Tory Group suggested recently that "crime rates are spiralling out of control". These are the same politicians who proposed a ludicrously low increase in the council tax precept that would have jeopardised the Mayor's plans for more police officers. Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said that the Tory budget proposals would have affected operational services like the Trident campaign, which is targeting black-on-black gun crime in areas such as Brent.

The Tories also attacked the Met for proposing, in their view, "outrageously low" crime-fighting targets. But there's little point in setting unrealistic targets which the police have no chance of achieving. It would do little to restore public confidence and would have a damaging effect on the morale of the police force.

Of course, it's no good telling people that overall crime has dropped if they don't feel safe where they live. Tackling the public's fear of crime is not just about reducing the level of violent offences. For many Londoners, their quality of life is affected by graffiti, antisocial behaviour and dumped cars, for example - which may seem trivial in comparison to gun crime and street robbery, but collectively can make people's lives a misery and can greatly add to their fear of crime. Living in a run-down, neglected area can influence whether people feel safe or not - whatever the crime figures might say.

At the GLA, the Liberal Democrats are backing local initiatives run by some local authorities that are putting neighbourhood wardens on the streets to tackle these problems. Additionally, the proposed community support officers will be a visible presence on the streets, dealing with antisocial behaviour and minor disorders, freeing up the time of police officers so that they can deal with major crime.

Crime won't be tackled by scaremongering, but through a united approach where we work together to fight crime on all levels.