EFFECTIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING (11/11/02)

Councillors want to see more police in rural areas and increased public co-operation with the police.They regard police officers as the custodians of the neighbourhood, patrolling the streets, accumulating local intelligence, and providing a rapid-response to localised crime.

In Britain today, a crime is committed every five seconds.That’s 14 crimes by the time you finish reading this article.

Crime costs each citizen £1,000 per year.That’s a cost of £5 million per year to Somerset’s residents.

Conservative County Councillor Alan Ham is one of the elected representatives from Somerset County Council on the Avon and Somerset Police Authority.He said “This might sound like wishful thinking and pie in the sky but it isn’t. If such an idea seems unattainable it shows just how unsafe our streets have become.

“Currently police officers are spread very thinly in rural areas and this problem must be addressed.Rural areas are affected by crime just as much as inner city and urban areas.The employment of parish wardens and community safety officers to act as the "eyes and ears" for police officers is an initiative that is to be welcomed.But, their deployment must be countywide and not, as at present, confined to " trial, experimental areas".

Oliver Letwin, Shadow Home Secretary confirms the sense in local thinking.“Short-term fixes and statistical manipulation are not a substitute for a coherent long term strategy to attack crime at its roots and get police visibly back on our streets.We need to back the police – not with words but with deeds.We need to cut through the red tape that binds them.”[1]

Stephen Martin-Scott is Conservative County Councillor for Taunton & Trull, where crime figures for violence against the person, sexual offences, burglary and theft from vehicles are above the national average

He commented, “In the past five years, the Government have brought forward 12 Criminal Justice Bills.Conservatives believe they have failed.A criminal is 39 times more likely to get away with a crime than to be caught and convicted.To put it another way, someone contemplating a crime right now, has 97.5% chance of not being punished for it.Crime threatens the very existence of a civilised society.It drives the elderly indoors and parents to take their children away from their local playgrounds.We must crack it.'