Conservatives unveil hotspot policing plan to cut crime

Crime in Britain is not evenly spread. A small number of streets and neighbourhoods account for a disproportionate share of serious crime. In London alone, just 4 per cent of neighbourhoods generate more than a quarter of all knife crime. Hotspot policing is built around that reality, focusing police resources where they can have the greatest impact instead of spreading them thinly across entire force areas. Hotspot policing is at the heart of the Conservative Party's policing plan.

The map attached shows exactly where that concentration exists locally. These are the streets and neighbourhoods where repeat violence, robbery and antisocial behaviour are most likely to occur, often at predictable times of day and days of the week. Each hotspot will have two officers assigned to it. This is where policing effort has the greatest impact.

The Home Office's Grip programme found that at least 90,000 patrols were carried out by the forces receiving bespoke hot spot policing funding in the year ending March 2023 and over 85,000 weapons were collected. In the year ending March 2022, there was a 7 per cent reduction in violence and robbery offences in the hotspots patrolled.

The next Conservative Government will mandate intense hotspot patrolling of the 2,000 neighbourhoods with the most violent crime, including robbery. These neighbourhoods represent 5 per cent of the country but 25 per cent of violent crime.

In practical terms, this means dedicated officers in your area, deployed for the 40 highest-risk hours each week, patrolling in pairs, every week of the year. Nationally, this requires around 5,500 officers delivering 8.3 million patrol hours annually and is forecast to prevent around 35,000 crimes. Locally, it means a sustained police presence where crime happens, not abstract promises or occasional patrols.

This approach will be backed by technology. Live facial recognition has already helped police make over 1,000 arrests across England and Wales, between January 2024 and July 2025, including a 70 per cent reduction in robbery at the Notting Hill Carnival. The next Conservative Government will require every force to deploy facial recognition routinely in high-crime areas.

Hotspot policing forms part of the Conservative Party's wider plan to refocus policing on crime prevention, public protection, and visible enforcement. Backed by the Conservatives £47 billion Savings Plan and fully funded with £800 million a year, this plan will:

• Recruit 10,000 new police officers as part of a major crackdown on violent and sexual crime.
• Launch a statutory, judge-led grooming gangs inquiry with the power to hold officials properly accountable.
• Triple stop and search to get knives and weapons off the streets.
• Scrap Non-Crime Hate Incidents, saving over 60,000 police hours and focusing officers on real crime.
• Give the Home Secretary the power to set binding operational priorities across all police forces.

Taken together, these measures mean policing that is targeted and visible, marking a new era of accountability and action. Relentless hotspot policing, an expanded stop and search regime, and smarter use of technology to keep dangerous offenders off the streets.

Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“A small number of streets and neighbourhoods generate a disproportionate amount of violence and disorder, and hotspot policing recognises that reality by putting officers exactly where and when crime is most likely to happen.

“Sustained patrols in high-risk areas interrupt repeat offending, deter opportunistic crime, and rebuild confidence for residents who too often feel forgotten. That is why forces that have taken this approach have seen real reductions in violence and antisocial behaviour.

“The next Conservative government will make this common-sense approach standard practice. Officers on the ground, week in week out, in the places that need them most, supported by technology designed to catch criminals. This is practical, evidence-led policing to deliver safer streets.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Please see attached hotspot map

Where police have used hotspot policing, results have followed:

• Backed by at least 90,000 patrols the Grip programme resulted in a 7 per cent reduction in violence and robbery offences in the hot spots on days patrolled versus days not patrolled. At least 90,000 patrols were carried out by the forces receiving bespoke hotspot policing funding in the year ending March 2023 and over 85,000 weapons were collected. It estimated that Grip and the bespoke hot spot funding resulted in a 7 per cent reduction in violence and robbery offences in the hot spots on days patrolled versus days not patrolled (Home Office, Research and analysis, 27 March 2025, link).

• Operation Dial in Essex targeted 13 anti-social behaviour hotspots with high-visibility policing, contributing to an 8.7 per cent fall in anti-social behaviour incidents in the year to August 2024, equivalent to 1,420 fewer offences.Operation Dial in Essex targeted 13 anti-social behaviour hotspots in areas, identified using public anti-social behaviour reports to Essex Police. The figures showed that across Essex Police reports of anti-social behaviour incidents fell by 8.7 per cent in the 12 months to end of August with 1,420 fewer offences committed (Essex Police, News, 14 October 2024, link).

Hotspot areas identified:

• Approximately 25 per cent of stop and search within London takes place in just 2.2 per cent of LSOAs within London, and 50 per cent of stop and searches take place in just 10.3 per cent of LSOAs (Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 6 November 2025, link).

• Approximately 25 per cent of stop and search within Greater Manchester takes place in just 1.2 per cent of LSOAs within Greater Manchester, and 50 per cent take place within 7.7 per cent (Home Office,Accredited Official Statistics, 6 November 2025, link).

o   In Greater Manchester, two of the main hotspot areas are Manchester 055B and Manchester 054C (Manchester Victoria train station and Arndale shopping centre).

• Approximately 25 per cent of stop and search within Merseyside takes place in just 1.8 per cent of LSOAs within Merseyside, and 50 per cent take place within 7.8 per cent (Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 6 November 2025, link).

o   In Merseyside, two of the main hotspot areas are Liverpool 061C and Liverpool 060C (Liverpool central train station, Liverpool Lime Street station and St John's Shopping Centre).

• Approximately 25 per cent of stop and search within West Midlands takes place in just 1.2 per cent of LSOAs within West Midlands, and 50 per cent take place within 7.1 per cent (Home Office,Accredited Official Statistics, 6 November 2025, link).

Our plan will restore law and order in our country and keep the British public safe: 

• We will hire 10,000 extra police officers, backed by £800 million of funding. To combat Labour's cuts to policing, we would hire 10,000 extra police officers over three years as part of our plan to crack down on crime and support policing. This would cost £800 million per year once fully rolled out.  

• We will introduce proven intense hotspot patrolling in 2,000 areaswhich covers 25 per cent of all serious violent crime and robbery and should prevent 35,000 offences. We know that a disproportionate amount of crime is committed in a limited number of hotspots. We would therefore mandate routine year-round intensive hotspot patrolling of high-crime areas, including areas of high violent crime, street robbery, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. We will build on existing hotspot policing with a target of 2,000 hotspots across the country, but on a more intensive basis. This would require an extra 5,550 police officers (Home Office, Research and analysis, 27 March 2025, link). 

• We will triple the use of stop and search, taking its usage back to levels in 2008. We would achieve this using the Home Secretary's new power to set operational priorities as set out above and changing PACE Code A 2.8A and College of Policing guidance to make clear that a single suspicion indicator is enough to merit a stop and search. This includes the smell of cannabis. We would mandate the more widespread use of section 60 suspicion-less stop and searches in high crime areas. This would mean amending section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to explicitly allow ‘without suspicion' searches to take place in the most intense violent crime ‘hotspots' at any time. These hotspots should be identified by the police and approved on an annual basis by a Magistrate (Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 14 March 2024, link). 

(Policy Exchange, Your Money or Your Life, 29 July 2025, link).

• We will require routine use of live facial recognition technology in crime hotspots in every police force area to identify people who are wanted in for criminal offences or for failing to attend court – including removing the need for LFR to be conducted overtly. This has led to hundreds of arrests of people who would not otherwise be caught where is has been recently used – including men wanted for crimes as serious as rape.