Crime - Detail Policy Series
UKpopdems – Detail Policy Series 1 of 24.
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will deliver detail policies for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
1. Crime - we can reduce violence and make Britain a safer community
You don’t have to look very far today to hear about violent crime and tragic, evil murders. Did you know there are almost a thousand murders every year in Britain – a thousand! That means, every year, one person in any normal town will be murdered in our country. Think of your local community and the people you know or recognise in the street. Imagine. One of those people could be murdered in a year’s time. If this doesn’t happen in your area it’s because most of these murders occur in big cities. But look now, no-one in Ipswich today can doubt those figures.
It was not very long ago that any murder would have made shocking headline news. Now, most murders are not even reported nationally. And the figures for violent injury run into the hundreds of thousands. So it’s very likely someone you know will be a victim of violence this year. Why is this? It is because successive governments have let violence in Britain run out of control. Yes, Labour and Conservative, both, not to mention LibDems. Tough on crime? Well, judge for yourself. The out of touch and self-seeking politicians we have now just aren’t concerned about the plight of ordinary people and their safety.
Everyone knows why violent crime has rocketed out of control. Every ordinary person, that is. For a start, murderers are let out of jail far too early after serving only half their sentence. A sentence that is very often too short in the first place. What deterrent is that? Guns, knives and other weapons abound. Where are they coming from and why aren’t they stopped? There are too many violent people on the streets when they should be in prison. Youths who are already showing violent tendencies are not punished early enough. Do you know it takes up to 50 separate offences for the courts finally to act? Lastly, there are not nearly enough police on the street to keep violence in check. And the police themselves are reluctant to take action because of the mountains of red tape, human rights, politically correct paperwork required for even the smallest misdemeanour.
We can reduce violence and make Britain a safer community. One political party has a commonsense policy to substantially reduce all crime, especially violent crime, the crime that makes ordinary Britons fearful in their own streets. And that party is the United Kingdom Popular Democrats - UKpopdems. UKpopdems’ policy derives from the people themselves, not from bloated bureaucrats and politicians who care more for their own pay and pensions than they do about yours and your family’s safety. This is what we’ll do:
Straight away, UKpopdems will begin a programme to massively increase the numbers of front-line Community Officers. Police who will patrol Britain’s communities in order to reduce crime and ensure people get help if and when they really need it. UKpopdems are aiming to recruit at least 250,000 Community Officers. It sounds an awful lot but this is the minimum number required to make sure that each community is covered. You see, if any government is really serious about reducing crime, especially violent crime, then potential criminals must be made aware they will be caught, prosecuted and punished. Did you know only 20% of crimes are ever detected today? That’s unacceptable and it’s why we need so many new officers on the streets.
Community Officers will work by getting to know the individuals and families in the local communities they serve. Local communities will also get to know their officers well because the team will be on the streets every day and all year round. This means that ordinary people experiencing problems will know exactly who to go to in order to get help. Not just help from police, but social help, too, because Community Officers also play a key role in making sure that everyone who needs help and support, of whatever nature, can get it. You know, the seeds of crime can start early and be nurtured by many small incidents – bullying, truancy, family debt, illness, stress, abuse, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy and many more. So the earlier support is made available from the right source, the more completely the causes of crime can be eradicated.
UKpopdems will pay for Community Officers, and other increases in specialist front-line jobs, by a matching reduction in bureaucracy. Do you know that, in Britain, there are many more bureaucrats in the public sector than there are front-line resources, perhaps two million or more? It’s another area that’s been allowed to run out of control by past governments. Bureaucrats stop things happening. Everyone, surely, has experienced the frustrating brick wall of bureaucracy when trying to move things forward. Amazingly, bureaucrats are often paid much better than front-line staff whose job is to make sure things do happen. UKpopdems will reduce combined numbers of public sector bureaucrats, managers and administrators year on year to just a fifth of front-line numbers. It will be achieved by utilising normal public sector turnover levels.
With the introduction of Community Officers, existing specialist police resources will be freed up to respond rapidly when needed and target the most serious criminals such as organised gangs, ruthless international syndicates, people and drug traffickers and terrorists. These are the people whose very existence rips the social fabric of our country. The development and use of technology for detection and communication is central here. Unlike the horrendously expensive and hopelessly failing administrative systems we hear so much about in Britain, the police have a fine track record of harnessing technology for detection and evidence gathering. UKpopdems will promote this and place an additional emphasis on the use of technology that reduces the onerous burden of paperwork. However, like any group with power over ordinary people, the highest levels of conduct are expected from the police. To make sure this happens, they will be strongly and independently regulated and totally depoliticised. Communities will be encouraged to air their views on police propriety and have them acted upon.
Possession of weapons, especially guns and knives, has become almost endemic in violent crime. 20,000 crimes a year involve firearms. They are seemingly carried as a matter of course – some say for personal defence, and others just to gain respect for themselves in their neighbourhood. Because of this the police, too, now regularly carry arms. This whole escalation is frightening and must be stopped by radical action. UKpopdems will legislate to stop all sales and possession of guns and weapons, including toys capable of firing any harmful missile. Sales and possession of most large knives, machetes, swords etc. will also be stopped. Other knives will require licensing if carried in public, except those with very small blades. Shotguns and small-bore sport guns will only be purchasable from secure agents and kept on private land. Any public transportation of these weapons must also be by secure agents. As a balancing policy, the police will no longer carry arms regularly in public, but only as a last resort in response to a direct and obvious individual threat. Where arms are required for a larger threat, such as terrorism, then these arms must remain out of sight of the public. Just one innocent death at the hands of armed police is one too many.
Britain can do nothing about reducing long term crime levels unless sentences properly reflect the seriousness of the crime. The most serious crimes, the ones people fear most, are crimes of violence; not only physical violence but also violent aggression and wanton criminal damage. UKpopdems will stipulate that all these crimes plus crimes of ‘invasion’ – rape, burglary, mugging etc, and large scale corporate and individual fraud, as well as people and drug trafficking - carry sentences of detention in jails or other secure institutions from the very first verdict of guilt; and the jail term given to be the minimum time served. Criminal behaviour whilst in prison may be prosecuted as a separate crime and could result in lengthening the sentence. Many criminal experts and pundits like to prove prison does not work because re-offending levels are high. Real people, people who experience crime, know that the point of a prison sentence is to remove the worst offenders from the society they are terrorising, punish them for what they have done, and give them the opportunity to change their lives. Because many more front-line resources will become available, life-changing opportunities will become a real option. What is envisaged is a version of UKpopdems’ education policy coupled with appropriate work, discipline and service elements.
This policy will require many more prisons, detention centres and other secure institutions; and many more front-line resources, not only of prison officers, but of all the specialists enabling rehabilitation. Though difficult, it will be done. Initially, we will require that all Metropolitan Areas, Counties and Districts allocate sufficient, suitable land to build secure institutions to ensure at least triple the existing capacity. If this process is too slow, existing suitable government land and facilities will be utilised, employing standard design, pre-fabricated units and perimeter security. Prison ships might also be required. This is not normal fiscal expenditure. The reduction of crime, especially violent crime, must be viewed more as the essential defence of the nation rather than as an operating expense. If necessary, UKpopdems will borrow, bring in private funds, and even divert existing revenue expenditure. Everyone knows that containing and reducing crime brings economic as well as social benefits.
Lastly, in order to achieve this goal, court procedures must be speeded up. But there must be no reduction in the rights of ordinary men and women, nor their treatment under the law, nor the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The extended use of magistrates’ courts will go a long way to easing the legal burden. Magistrates, those stalwart and unpaid volunteers, are already involved in more than 90% of cases. Many more will be required, and relaxing recently introduced politically correct appointing policies will encourage volunteers to come forward. Courts will stay open longer and, if necessary, some non-violent offences will be made civil offences to reduce work-load. Magistrates can already impose six month sentences and we will work with all parties to see if this can be increased to one year.
The result of this tough action will be a rapid reduction in violent crime and other serious crime. Potential offenders will realise they will be caught and severely punished and so will begin to pursue a different course with their lives. Individuals and families who really need help will get it simply and quickly. Today’s centres of crime such as sink estates, unemployment black spots, gang-run ghettos, inner city warrens etc., will gradually quieten. Country areas, which are empty of police resources today, will see Community officers covering every village and by-way, working with and getting to know the local community.
Linking policies:
Schools
Social Services
Immigration
Work
Bureaucracy
Local Government and Regions
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will deliver detail policies for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
1. Crime - we can reduce violence and make Britain a safer community
You don’t have to look very far today to hear about violent crime and tragic, evil murders. Did you know there are almost a thousand murders every year in Britain – a thousand! That means, every year, one person in any normal town will be murdered in our country. Think of your local community and the people you know or recognise in the street. Imagine. One of those people could be murdered in a year’s time. If this doesn’t happen in your area it’s because most of these murders occur in big cities. But look now, no-one in Ipswich today can doubt those figures.
It was not very long ago that any murder would have made shocking headline news. Now, most murders are not even reported nationally. And the figures for violent injury run into the hundreds of thousands. So it’s very likely someone you know will be a victim of violence this year. Why is this? It is because successive governments have let violence in Britain run out of control. Yes, Labour and Conservative, both, not to mention LibDems. Tough on crime? Well, judge for yourself. The out of touch and self-seeking politicians we have now just aren’t concerned about the plight of ordinary people and their safety.
Everyone knows why violent crime has rocketed out of control. Every ordinary person, that is. For a start, murderers are let out of jail far too early after serving only half their sentence. A sentence that is very often too short in the first place. What deterrent is that? Guns, knives and other weapons abound. Where are they coming from and why aren’t they stopped? There are too many violent people on the streets when they should be in prison. Youths who are already showing violent tendencies are not punished early enough. Do you know it takes up to 50 separate offences for the courts finally to act? Lastly, there are not nearly enough police on the street to keep violence in check. And the police themselves are reluctant to take action because of the mountains of red tape, human rights, politically correct paperwork required for even the smallest misdemeanour.
We can reduce violence and make Britain a safer community. One political party has a commonsense policy to substantially reduce all crime, especially violent crime, the crime that makes ordinary Britons fearful in their own streets. And that party is the United Kingdom Popular Democrats - UKpopdems. UKpopdems’ policy derives from the people themselves, not from bloated bureaucrats and politicians who care more for their own pay and pensions than they do about yours and your family’s safety. This is what we’ll do:
Straight away, UKpopdems will begin a programme to massively increase the numbers of front-line Community Officers. Police who will patrol Britain’s communities in order to reduce crime and ensure people get help if and when they really need it. UKpopdems are aiming to recruit at least 250,000 Community Officers. It sounds an awful lot but this is the minimum number required to make sure that each community is covered. You see, if any government is really serious about reducing crime, especially violent crime, then potential criminals must be made aware they will be caught, prosecuted and punished. Did you know only 20% of crimes are ever detected today? That’s unacceptable and it’s why we need so many new officers on the streets.
Community Officers will work by getting to know the individuals and families in the local communities they serve. Local communities will also get to know their officers well because the team will be on the streets every day and all year round. This means that ordinary people experiencing problems will know exactly who to go to in order to get help. Not just help from police, but social help, too, because Community Officers also play a key role in making sure that everyone who needs help and support, of whatever nature, can get it. You know, the seeds of crime can start early and be nurtured by many small incidents – bullying, truancy, family debt, illness, stress, abuse, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy and many more. So the earlier support is made available from the right source, the more completely the causes of crime can be eradicated.
UKpopdems will pay for Community Officers, and other increases in specialist front-line jobs, by a matching reduction in bureaucracy. Do you know that, in Britain, there are many more bureaucrats in the public sector than there are front-line resources, perhaps two million or more? It’s another area that’s been allowed to run out of control by past governments. Bureaucrats stop things happening. Everyone, surely, has experienced the frustrating brick wall of bureaucracy when trying to move things forward. Amazingly, bureaucrats are often paid much better than front-line staff whose job is to make sure things do happen. UKpopdems will reduce combined numbers of public sector bureaucrats, managers and administrators year on year to just a fifth of front-line numbers. It will be achieved by utilising normal public sector turnover levels.
With the introduction of Community Officers, existing specialist police resources will be freed up to respond rapidly when needed and target the most serious criminals such as organised gangs, ruthless international syndicates, people and drug traffickers and terrorists. These are the people whose very existence rips the social fabric of our country. The development and use of technology for detection and communication is central here. Unlike the horrendously expensive and hopelessly failing administrative systems we hear so much about in Britain, the police have a fine track record of harnessing technology for detection and evidence gathering. UKpopdems will promote this and place an additional emphasis on the use of technology that reduces the onerous burden of paperwork. However, like any group with power over ordinary people, the highest levels of conduct are expected from the police. To make sure this happens, they will be strongly and independently regulated and totally depoliticised. Communities will be encouraged to air their views on police propriety and have them acted upon.
Possession of weapons, especially guns and knives, has become almost endemic in violent crime. 20,000 crimes a year involve firearms. They are seemingly carried as a matter of course – some say for personal defence, and others just to gain respect for themselves in their neighbourhood. Because of this the police, too, now regularly carry arms. This whole escalation is frightening and must be stopped by radical action. UKpopdems will legislate to stop all sales and possession of guns and weapons, including toys capable of firing any harmful missile. Sales and possession of most large knives, machetes, swords etc. will also be stopped. Other knives will require licensing if carried in public, except those with very small blades. Shotguns and small-bore sport guns will only be purchasable from secure agents and kept on private land. Any public transportation of these weapons must also be by secure agents. As a balancing policy, the police will no longer carry arms regularly in public, but only as a last resort in response to a direct and obvious individual threat. Where arms are required for a larger threat, such as terrorism, then these arms must remain out of sight of the public. Just one innocent death at the hands of armed police is one too many.
Britain can do nothing about reducing long term crime levels unless sentences properly reflect the seriousness of the crime. The most serious crimes, the ones people fear most, are crimes of violence; not only physical violence but also violent aggression and wanton criminal damage. UKpopdems will stipulate that all these crimes plus crimes of ‘invasion’ – rape, burglary, mugging etc, and large scale corporate and individual fraud, as well as people and drug trafficking - carry sentences of detention in jails or other secure institutions from the very first verdict of guilt; and the jail term given to be the minimum time served. Criminal behaviour whilst in prison may be prosecuted as a separate crime and could result in lengthening the sentence. Many criminal experts and pundits like to prove prison does not work because re-offending levels are high. Real people, people who experience crime, know that the point of a prison sentence is to remove the worst offenders from the society they are terrorising, punish them for what they have done, and give them the opportunity to change their lives. Because many more front-line resources will become available, life-changing opportunities will become a real option. What is envisaged is a version of UKpopdems’ education policy coupled with appropriate work, discipline and service elements.
This policy will require many more prisons, detention centres and other secure institutions; and many more front-line resources, not only of prison officers, but of all the specialists enabling rehabilitation. Though difficult, it will be done. Initially, we will require that all Metropolitan Areas, Counties and Districts allocate sufficient, suitable land to build secure institutions to ensure at least triple the existing capacity. If this process is too slow, existing suitable government land and facilities will be utilised, employing standard design, pre-fabricated units and perimeter security. Prison ships might also be required. This is not normal fiscal expenditure. The reduction of crime, especially violent crime, must be viewed more as the essential defence of the nation rather than as an operating expense. If necessary, UKpopdems will borrow, bring in private funds, and even divert existing revenue expenditure. Everyone knows that containing and reducing crime brings economic as well as social benefits.
Lastly, in order to achieve this goal, court procedures must be speeded up. But there must be no reduction in the rights of ordinary men and women, nor their treatment under the law, nor the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The extended use of magistrates’ courts will go a long way to easing the legal burden. Magistrates, those stalwart and unpaid volunteers, are already involved in more than 90% of cases. Many more will be required, and relaxing recently introduced politically correct appointing policies will encourage volunteers to come forward. Courts will stay open longer and, if necessary, some non-violent offences will be made civil offences to reduce work-load. Magistrates can already impose six month sentences and we will work with all parties to see if this can be increased to one year.
The result of this tough action will be a rapid reduction in violent crime and other serious crime. Potential offenders will realise they will be caught and severely punished and so will begin to pursue a different course with their lives. Individuals and families who really need help will get it simply and quickly. Today’s centres of crime such as sink estates, unemployment black spots, gang-run ghettos, inner city warrens etc., will gradually quieten. Country areas, which are empty of police resources today, will see Community officers covering every village and by-way, working with and getting to know the local community.
Linking policies:
Schools
Social Services
Immigration
Work
Bureaucracy
Local Government and Regions
posted by United Kingdom Popular Democratic Party at 3:25 PM
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