Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary today pledged to rebuild
neighbourhood policing after new analysis revealed the growing
wave of high street vandals getting off scot-free.
The charge rate for criminal damage has collapsed by almost half
in the last seven years, according to new research from the
Labour Party.
Recorded criminal damage to shops, schools, leisure centres and
businesses has increased by 30% in the last year alone.
In the year ending September 2021, 41,550 offences of ‘criminal
damage to a building other than a dwelling’ were recorded by
police. But the latest figures show that it has risen to
54,487 - 150 incidents every single day.
Meanwhile the charge rate for criminal damage and arson has
fallen from 7.9% in 2015, to just 3.9% in the latest statistics.
As high street businesses continue to suffer from the
cost-of-living crisis, the failure to tackle criminal
damage is making things worse across the country.
A Labour government will:
-
Introduce a Neighbourhood Policing
Guarantee with 13,000 additional neighbourhood
police and PCSOs, increased town centre patrols and a
guaranteed named officer and PCSO for every community
-
Introduce new Respect Orders, a new criminal
offence to target persistent adult repeat offenders who are
ruining lives with antisocial behaviour
-
Take tough action against town centre drug
dealing with tough powers for police to shut down
crack houses and local neighbourhood drug teams to patrol town
centres lead data-driven hotspot policing targeted at common
drug dealing sites
-
Introduce clean up squads for fly-tippers,
establishing clean up squads whereby offenders will clear up
litter, fly-tipping and vandalism. They will be given Fixed
Penalty Cleaning Notices that will be managed by the local
authority
-
Expand the use of parental sanctions for
parents whose children repeatedly engage in anti-social
behaviour, we will extend the use of Parenting Orders forcing
parents to attend parental classes.
Some 10,000 neighbourhood officers and PCSOs have been cut from
Britain’s streets since 2015. As part of its mission to make
Britain’s streets safe, Labour will implement a
Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, delivering 13,000 additional
neighbourhood officers and PCSOs, to crack down on anti-social
behaviour.
MP, Labour’s Shadow Home
Secretary, said:
"Under the Conservatives, our town centres are being hit by
growing levels of vandalism, with people smashing shop windows,
graffitiing public spaces and trashing our high streets yet
nothing is done.
“Neighbourhood policing has been decimated under the Tories and
as a result criminals and vandals are getting away scot-free
while communities are being let down.
"The next Labour government will put 13,000 police and PCSOs in
neighbourhood roles because everyone deserves to feel safe.”
Ends
Notes:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-year-to-september-2022-data-tables
