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What the 5 main parties are offering in this important policy area
We’re now just a day away from what looks to be the closest general election in decades, with many people still undecided about who to vote for. As a security company, many of our customers are either victims of crime or concerned about the risk of crime so we thought it would be interesting to take a look at what all the main parties are promising in terms of crime and policing.
The following is a summary of each party’s manifesto pledges on this important area. We offer no opinion or comment, simply the details as published in their manifestos and reported in the media.
Conservative
⇒ Finish the job of police reform, following the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners, for example by enabling fire and police services to work more closely together.
⇒ Toughen sentencing and reform the prison system, including a new semi-custodial sentence for prolific criminals, allowing for a short, sharp spell in custody to change behaviour.
⇒ Scrap the Human Rights Act and curtail the role of the European Court of Human Rights, so that foreign criminals can be more easily deported from Britain.
⇒ Make savings by closing old, inefficient prisons, building larger, modern and fit-for-purpose ones and expanding payment-by-results
Labour
⇒ Replace low-level cautions for anti-social behaviour with ‘payback orders’ to make offenders ‘put right the wrong they have done’
⇒ Work to embed restorative justice across the youth justice system and publish a Violence Against Women and Girls Bill
⇒ Protect neighbourhood policing by safeguarding over 10,000 front-line police officers over the next three years.
⇒ Require all police officers to become Chartered Officers, holding a registration with the College of Policing, and able to be struck off for serious misconduct.
⇒ Axe police and crime commissioners and replace them with committees of council leaders.
⇒ Give local residents a say in deciding crime fighting priorities and allow them access to police planning meetings
⇒ Create a Local Policing Commitment where police forces guarantee neighbourhood policing in every area
⇒ Introduce a Victims’ Law giving victims a voice and entitlement to minimum standards of service
⇒ Turn prisons into places of hard work and learning
Liberal Democrat
⇒ Create a Victims’ Bill of Rights with a single point of contact for victims and offer victims a right to choose restorative justice.
⇒ Fight discrimination in the criminal justice system and recruit more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic police officers.
⇒ Replace Police and Crime Commissioners with Police Boards made up of local councillors
⇒ Make Stop and Search more accountable through compulsory body cams in some areas
⇒ Treatment for drug offenders rather than custodial sentences
⇒ More community work sentences rather than prison sentences
⇒ Introduce a Freedoms Act that would protect free speech, tighten the regulation of CCTV, stop heavy-handed policing and ban high-frequency Mosquito devices that can be heard by young people.
Green
⇒ Treat drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one
⇒ Create Departments of Crime Prevention in government
⇒ Restrict police use of random Stop and Search powers
⇒ Focus on crime prevention measures and greatly expand the use of restorative justice, with the offender making up to the victim and the community to reduce the numbers in prison and reduce reoffending
⇒ Focus on crime prevention measures, including more community policing under local democratic control, more local police stations and the return of bus conductors and others who have an important effect on social order
UKIP
⇒ Leave the EU to prevent those with criminal convictions coming here
⇒ Remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, and repeal Labour’s Human Rights legislation
⇒ Ensure there are sufficient numbers of police officers
⇒ Merge police forces to save money that can go into front-line policing
So, which party gives you the greatest confidence?
After reading their views on crime and how to tackle it do the political parties reassure you? Does it answer your concerns? Has it influenced how you will vote? How important is this issue to you?
In the meantime, while the politicians are working on reducing crime, if you want help with increasing your own protection against crime through a burglar alarm, CCTV and secure locks then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.