ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR MUST NOT BE TACKLED AT EXPENSE OF VIOLENT CRIME

12.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th Jul 2004

Sally Hamwee outlines Lib Dem concerns over violent crime

London Assembly Liberal Democrats today warned the Mayor and Ministers that new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour must not be made at the expense of cracking down on violent crime.

The warning came as new figures released by the Metropolitan Police Authority that show reports of violent crime rose by one-third, or nearly 60,000, from quarter 3 to quarter 4 2003/04, and are up by 2.4% year on year.

Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, Sally Hamwee, said:-

"London's new crime figures are not good news either for the politicians in charge, or for Londoners. In a city where recorded violent crimes have gone up by a third in three months, there is a huge amount of work to be done.

"These figures show that a tougher clampdown on violent crime must be a priority for the police. London's dangerous and violent criminals must know their lives will get harder not easier and that there will be a no-nonsense policy to bringing violent crime down.

"If as the Met is saying these figures are flawed, then serious questions must be asked about how the police can provide figures the public can understand and trust. As it stands, these figures will be deeply worrying to Londoners."

ENDS

Notes to editor

According to the Met Police Authority Performance report (Quarter 4, January - March 2004) Appendix A, page 8, presented to the Budget Committee of the London Assembly :-

"Violent crime has increased by 33.4% since quarter 3 (177,787) to 237,186 in quarter 4. This is also an increase of 2.4% compared to quarter 4 in 2002-03 (231,727). The MPS reports that major types of violent crime such as murder, rape, GBH and ABH have increased but in increases in such offences of violent such as domestic violence, rape, hate crime and child abuse are as the result of increased reporting, particularly through initiatives as Operation Sapphire and Community Safety Units. The MPA/MPS have not set targets for either total crime or violent crime as they consider them to be flawed indicators rather than a true representation of the level of crime. The reason it is considered a flawed indicator is because violent crime does not accurately reflect the actual number of offences committed."

This can be found at:-

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/budgmtgs/2004/budjul14/budjul14item06.pdf