Cutting crime, securing communities - Changing London for good

30 June 2010

POLICY: CRIME

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The smartest approach is to tackle the problem from every angle. We need to stop youngsters drifting into crime. We need to support struggling parents. We need to listen to local people and encourage and really empower them in developing and protecting their neighbourhoods. And we need a well-resourced, accountable and professional police force reacting and responding to the needs of communities.”

– Oona King,speaking to Labour members in Ealing

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summary of my proposals to youI will be the Mayor to take control of the Metropolitan Police. �

I will introduce a new Londoner’s charter of Key Policing Rights �

I will insist on high performance through regular monitoring of detection �and arrest rates - and release figures showing public satisfaction with their local safer neighbourhoods policing teams.

I will publish, on a monthly basis, local authorities’ use of the tools and powers �at their disposal (such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and key crime statistics) against the size of the problem in each area.

I will create a new programme for ‘community crime activists’ with an �aspiration for 1000 members across the capital.

I will lobby the Government to give communities the power to take out �their own injunctions and ASBOs where local authorities are too slow to respond.

I will lead a massive drive to help the parents of out-of-control families re- �take control of their own homes and own families; helping the communities which have been the victims of this persistent behaviour living nearby.

I will support a public education campaign highlighting the threat of knife �crime to parents and young people

I will introduce a new campaign to challenge the culture that makes �knives ‘cool’ and I will recruit a new young people’s champion to lead that campaign.

I will promote a new type of Community Punishment and payback in London �forcing criminals to payback to the community in squads that clean up the streets 7 days a week

I will lobby Government to free up more of the assets confiscated as part of �London crime fighting for investment in London policing priorities in local areas which once again must be voted on by local people.

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In all that I do my policy will be underpinned by the three key principles that I have set out for my mayoralty:

I will strengthen both enforcement and prevention, never forgetting that policies shouldn’t be sticking plasters.They must deal with the root problem.

Policing only succeeds when a genuine relationship of trust is established between police and local residents. There can be no short cuts on either side.

Residents must have more influence over police priorities, more power to sanction antisocial offenders, and more say over punishment and community pay-back.

1. Prevention is better than cure

2. Improving public services means improving human relationships

3. A modern democracy needs to give power to the people

my philosophy on tackling crime

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contextIn the last decade, the crime rate across London has fallen. But in some areas it is still too high and anti-social behaviour still blights the lives of far too many Londoners.

We also know that drugs and knives tragically destroy lives and threaten to tear communities apart. This demands a zero tolerance approach.

My number one priority is to make neighbourhood policing more effective and accountable, available at the time when residents really need it and when most crimeactually occurs; not only during daylight hours.

In some areas, where neighbourhood policing works, it transforms communities and hugely improves the lives of local residents. But this gold standard is not found in every community and in every ward, and we must change that.

We must also face facts: poor parenting leads to too much of the disorder and bad behaviour we see on the capital’s streets. More can and must be done to focus on this root cause of London crime.

As mayor one of my top priorities will be providing dedicated support and early intervention where it’s needed, and punishment when parents fail to act responsibly and deal with poor behaviour.

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TAKING CONTROL OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE

I will be the Mayor to take control of the Metropolitan Police. I will take up the responsibility that Boris Johnson abdicated by chairing the Metropolitan Police Authority. If the structure is abolished by the Conservative/Liberal Government then I will undertake a similar active chairing role in a new structure.

As mayor I will ensure that the Metropolitan Police is accountable to local residents. I will not be a Mayor who stands for the politicisation of the police. But while I respect the independence of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, I believe that responsive neighbourhood policing should be at the very heart of everything the police do. It is only fair that the police are held accountable for the quality of their local service. Where the police are not accountable enough, we must protect measures that allow local people to know the services they can expect.

I want to ensure that the Met properly represents the communities we serve and understand why there are so few senior black officers in the Met.

I will launch a full financial review of the police service. London officers claim the highest amount of overtime, at £4,483 a year. We need to understand why overtime claims are so high, and reduce them whilst being careful not to compromise the core service.

I will work to protect police numbers (there are 33,147 police in the Metropolitan Police), but I recognise that the Met cannot be immune from making savings. I will be the Mayor to lead the process of efficiency so that it does not hurt the public’s priorities.

The Coalition Government is preparing to scrap the Policing Pledge and many of the targets which the Labour Government set the police, for example: ‘raising confidence that the police are addressing the issues that matter to local people’. This move is wholly misguided and wrong.

I will introduce a new Londoner’s charter of Key Policing Rights so that basic accountability is maintained

and improved and we enable better partnership working with local people.

The public should have a right to:Know what service the police offer locally for every given •situation: where to go, what to do and who to call.Have confidence that every 999 call will be answered •in 10 seconds and every serious crime reported is responded to in person within 15 minutesKnow when they will receive a response to their concern •(e.g. a police officer will always call at your house after a burglary at a time convenient to you)Where there is a police team in your local area where •you can go to report a crime in personThat there will be a 24-hour police station in every single •borough

I will also insist on high performance through regular monitoring of detection and arrest rates - and release figures showing public satisfaction with their local safer neighbourhoods policing teams. I would hold the Police Commissioner and his or her Borough Commanders responsible for the performance of their teams in each area of London and I will push for these to be joint appointments between the local authority, Commissioner and the Mayor.

It is a key principle to me that local people know their area and its issues better than anyone. This means that effective police communication and consultation with local residents is critical. Labour’s policing pledge required officers to hold monthly community police consultation meetings, and while some groups like that in Brixton do good work, we want to be sure that level of community activity is similar across London.

We must enable neighbourhood police teams to work round the clock ‘24/7’ on a shift basis when needed, and certainly during the times locally when most crimes are committed. here necessary this could mean that part of the neighbourhood team would incorporate a dedicated response officer which should mean an all-hours response by a neighbourhood team.

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The policies and principles I’ve outlined will reduce crime and the fear of crime.

Taken as a package, they will help change London for good.

© Oona 4 Mayor campaign 2010

Reproduced from the website www.oona4mayor.com. Promoted by Matt Cooke on behalf of Oona King, both at 6 Heron Quays, London E14 4JB.