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Crime pledge (From Darlington and Stockton Times)
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Crime pledge
10:50am Friday 5th March 2010
Sir, – The Government once said that it would be “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, however, the reality of life under Labour is very different.
Police officers now spend 50 per cent more time on paperwork than they do out on patrol.
We can’t go on like this. Conservatives really will be tough on crime.
We will scrap the early release scheme (recently Labour has announcement similar plans, nothing to do with the coming election, I am sure) and increase prison capacity, using money confiscated from criminals to deliver up to 15 new crisis centres for rape victims.
We will tell the police to publish detailed local crime data, and hold regular neighbourhood beat meetings, and give them the power to identify offenders in a local area as well as reducing the amount of paperwork that police have to deal with.
But fighting crime is about more than catching criminals.
Nearly half of all violent incidents are alcohol-related. So we have promised to give local councils and the police much stronger powers over licensing – including the broader powers to take licences away from problem premises. A new Border Police Force will help to stem the flow of drugs into the country.
Most importantly we have to break the cycle of re-offending.
The prison system is in crisis, and struggling to properly rehabilitate prisoners.
Recent statistics suggest that last year seven thousand crimes were committed by young offenders who had been in and out of prison at least three times – before the age of 18. Not only that but re-offending rates remain high with 100,000 persistent offenders being responsible for more than half of all crime. We can’t go on like this.
JAMES WHARTON Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Stockton South.
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Cal-c, Yarm says...
10:29pm Fri 5 Mar 10
Everything that you have mainly said in this letter is what is already happening. Crime money being reinvested, meetings with police officers at a local level. Maybe you should start attending some of the meetings that local elected councillors already hold and not the meetings that just gain you some brownie points.
Also please may i request that you make sure whoever delivers the newsletters in the future reads the sign on my letterbox saying NO CANVASSING and give Lord Ashcrofts funded marginal newsletters to someone who cares what you have to blat on about!!
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simpsonm, Yarm says...
8:35pm Fri 5 Mar 10
Crime data is also provided by Cleveland police and has been for quite a long time now. Very little new in your letter that has not already been good practice for a number of years.
Residents in one particular area of Stockton South have worked tirelessly to identify youths guilty of crime and antisocial behaviour. It has been very effective and the police have also played their part in this exercise.
Maybe you letter has been written to coincide with the General Election too. Where were you when we were working for the above cause?