The Problems

Crime is one of the major problems in our society. Many of you say it is our No. 1 problem, especially in our inner cities.

Whatever figures you look at, crime  (especially violent crime, and the police rarely have time to deal with anything less) is on the increase. Crimes involving injury to the person have increased more than most. Firearms offences have risen dramatically; dozens of firearms offences are committed every day in Britain and many occurring within and between gangs, are most certainly not reported.

Murders were running at around 200 to 300 a year in the 1950s and 1960s. They rose to 600 a year in 1997. In 2002 there were 863 and for the last five years there have been between 850-1000 per year. Knife crime has significantly increased and the true scale of the problem may never be known – again, within gangs. Based on one survey, a worst case projection indicates that 60,000 young people (predominantly male) may be stabbed and injured in the UK each year, whilst a rather more conservative estimate could be 22,000. Either way the figure is alarming, but not surprising bearing in mind the constant stream of knife related murders in the media.

Drug crimes are now running at 228,000 a year (up 50,000 in the last two years alone) - and would be much higher if the government hadn’t made the decision to change the status of cannabis from ‘Class B’ to ‘Class C’ status. That reduced the drug crime figures but led to an increase in mental health problems, according to a number of mental health charities.

Britain has a relatively low prison population - but relatively high crime. The recent ‘Manifesto for Reform’ published by Reform said: “Britain sends relatively few people to prison compared to other countries, given its level of crime.

The experience of European countries suggests a link between high crime and low imprisonment. Britain and Sweden are both high crime countries with low rates of imprisonment - whilst Ireland, Spain and Portugal are low crime countries with high rates of imprisonment. As the think tank CIVITAS recently said: “The aim should be a low prison population because of a low crime rate, not a small prison population because of the crime rate”. Reform concluded: “The better way is to build more prisons if required, while improving custodial regimes and continuing to try to develop more effective non-custodial and semi-custodial punishments”. A firm policy of sentencing dangerous members of the community to prison for long periods has worked in the Unites States.

Police Officers are sick and tired of their enthusiasm and ideas for preventing and solving crime being rebuffed by out-of-touch, politically correct senior Police Officers. Police Officers should use their time much more effectively to prevent, detect and prosecute crime.

Cut crime and anti-social behaviour by doing the following:

Eliminating anti-social behaviour - drunken louts, those who threaten and verbally abuse others, people who deposit litter, and those who deface walls and property with graffiti. We’ll do that by dramatically increasing the penalties - and enforcing them There will be no ‘no-go’ areas in our Britain.

Reclaiming the streets - which have been lost to criminals, anti-social yobs and gangs - by giving the Police new powers to control groups of people on our streets, by arresting them or ordering them to disperse.

Giving Police increased powers to arrest and detain those who are drunk and disorderly – or stoned and disorderly - on our streets. Locking up drunk or stoned people for 24 hours will soon reduce the numbers of them on our streets. We simply cannot go on burdening our National Health Service with over 162,000 drink related and 215,000 drug related admissions a year. (Clear indication that the liberalisation of alcohol and drug policy has backfired)

Giving Police new powers to randomly check people for drug abuse if they have a reasonable suspicion that someone is under the influence of drugs.

ii) Radically overhaul policing by doing the following:

Making the Police accountable to their local communities. We will have locally-elected Police Committees in each local district, town or borough, with the public having the right to attend meetings and put their concerns directly to the Police.

Cutting Police paperwork drastically - we’ll free them from red tape within the Police stations and free them from unnecessary burdens imposed by the Human Rights Act.

Re-opening many local police stations which will stay open 24 hours a day.

Keeping County Constabularies, which are more efficient and more responsive to local people.

Requiring Chief Police Officers to maximise the visible presence of uniformed officers in all communities.

Paying for any extra Police Officers we need to make our communities, towns and cities safe.

….because we will succeed in our aim of cutting Police red tape, we won’t need all the extra officers that other parties say we need.

Ensuring that Police have the back-up, civilian staff that they need to do their job.

Allow Police forces to be independent in their decision making without interference from Government.

iii) Reform the Criminal Justice System by :-

Ensuring that householders can protect themselves from intruders without fear of prosecution, unless they use ‘grossly disproportionate force’ ensuring that offices, shops and business premises are similarly protected from intruders.

Reviewing the operation of the Crown Prosecution Service to see if it is working properly. This review would consider the option of returning responsibility for prosecutions to the Police. Many people say things worked better when prosecutions were in the hands of the Police, as they are in many other countries.

We are also interested in having some police officers work with the judicial system and vice versa, on perhaps 6 monthly placements, to work towards a better understanding of each other’s jobs. Presently so many obvious cases are dismissed due to technicalities that should not be relevant. A desk-bound court official cannot possibly understand how running for 400m and vaulting a fence to face a violent thug might affect a procedure written by someone who has only sat on several health and safety and integration committees.

iv) Tackle Terrorism by :-

Immediately deporting any foreigner who is convicted or reasonably suspected of terrorist activities, regardless of any possible risk to them in the countries they came from.

Banning people from belonging to - or closely associating with - known terrorist groups - just as membership of the IRA is illegal in the Irish Republic and in Britain. We need, for example, to break up any groups in Britain which support terrorism and raise funds for terror groups. Continuing to co-operate with international security agencies in detecting and preventing terrorist activity - and prosecuting those arrested for it.

v) Introduce deterrent sentencing, including :-

Ensuring that punishments of offenders are appropriate to their crimes.

Ensuring that those guilty of serious or repeated offences are imprisoned for appropriately long periods to protect the public and that bail is denied where reasonable thought suggests they will continue such traits.

Ensuring that offenders serve the full sentences imposed by the Courts. If you do the crime, then you’ll serve the time. Life will mean life. Good behaviour in prison will be rewarded by not having your sentence extended. Bad behaviour in prison will result in your prison term being lengthened.

Popular Alliance does favour a referendum on Capital Punishment.

Double the term for a second jail term offence compares to the normal statute. It is surely worse to continue to re-offend than err for the first time.

Allow complete witness anonymity. Too many witnesses are scared to testify and who can blame them.

Allow judges to be able to lock up the most dangerous paedophiles for life - because experience shows that those who commit sexual offences against children are likely to do so again.

Allow judges to sentence people-traffickers to life and confiscate their assets.

Criminals who have financially benefited from crime should have all assets seized which can be contributed to criminal activities. The burden of proof should be on the criminal to prove the assets were obtained by legal means.

Hold an urgent and complete review of sentencing policy, including a review of punishments for financial offences such as non-payment of Council Tax and social security fraud, where we need effective non-custodial sentences. Judges should have the power to punish people on social security benefits by cutting their current and future benefits.

vi) Build more prisons and reform them :-

Provide sufficient prison places for all adults sentenced. That means, for the foreseeable future, building more prisons Reform prisons by:

(a) increasing the resources available to provide real work and training for prisoners, so that we reduce the role of prisons as ‘crime academies’

(b) developing an imaginative new ‘citizenship training’ regime for young offenders, which will give them the knowledge and skills that they need to become responsible citizens and stay out of trouble.

(c ) building prisons to a more basic model that provide security but not luxury. The current costs are too high and should be less than half the current £700 per week. We cannot afford to build more prisons that are luxury camps with the associated high costs and this low cost option will provide the deterrent and protect the taxpayer. No-one should ever see prisons as an easy and comfortable option.

d) build new prisons adjacent to recycling plants and other nationally beneficial locations, where prisoners are made to work and where the profits of such work are used to supplement the costs of imprisonment, resulting in less strain upon the public purse.

If you have any comments or wish to contribute ideas and suggestions for our Crime Policy, then please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it