Why can't our police force just be left to police?

I've always had a lot of time for Mike Fuller, Chief Constable of kent Police. Years ago we had real problems in Pembury with anti social behaviour, and I contacted Mike to ask for help. The response was astonishing, and within a few weeks Pembury's problems had largely been resolved.

So I take very seriously his comments in today's Guardian, "Labour Making Our Job Harder" (click here to open link). He claims that as a result of government ministers ordering police to "deliver" more criminals to justice, our prison system is now creaking under the strain - to the extent that hardened offenders are either being released early, or worse still, escaping the prison system altogether in order to keep numbers down.

He also commented on the performance inspection regime, a topic which often causes concern in local government. It appears that as a Chief Constable, much of Mike Fuller's time is spent reporting to no less than thirteen separate official bodies.

This isn't the first time I've heard these kind of problems in the emergency services; the Fire and Rescue Service are in the same ridiculous situation, being over-managed and over-regulated.

Indeed, a much-trumpeted new local government performance management culture promised to reduce the thirteen hundred-odd performance indicators to around two hundred. I heard yesterday that a new range of indicators will take us back up to around thirteen hundred for Kent County Council.

Why can't our police force just be left to police?

No change there then.

It's been great this week to catch up on recreational reading - much of it around my real interest - general aviation. And so I was interested to see in this month's "Pilot" magazine (click here) that this Government has also got its "we know best" talons into even this. It seems they have asked their "anti-terrorism expert", Lord Carlile QC to look at the 'potent cocktail' of terrorists and light aircraft (click here to read his report).

His findings, which have been reported to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, are that "light aircraft could be used by terrorists to launch attacks on buildings" after the style of 9/11.

Fortunately AOPA - the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association - has entered the debate in the person of Martin Robinson. He refers to the 9/11 terrorists learning to fly light aircraft (remember one in particular told his instructor he wanted to learn take off and flying, but not to bother showing him landing) and makes the valid point that if the light training aircraft in which they learned their skills flying skills could have produced the required amount of mayhem and carnage, they wouldn't have bothered to hijack fully laden airliners.

He adds "...to cause major damage, they needed large, heavy aircraft travelling at high speed with significant quantities of fuel on board. An incident involving an aircraft weighing as much as a Mini bouncing off a building was not what the terrorists were after."

So well done Government. Once again you've blundered around in an area about which you know very little, producing nonsensical recommendations which could curtail the harmless enjoyment of thousands of people.

No change there then.

The 'Virtual Travels' of Gary Glitter

Gary Glitter was today released from a Vietnamese jail, and immediately deported back to Britain. Convicted of abuse against two young Vietnamese children, paedophile Glitter (or Paul Gadd in old money) consistently refused to acknowledge his guilt, blaming his fate instead on a conspiracy involving the British press.

So what now? Our laws dictate that Glitter will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register, which will require him to report regularly to his local police station.

But even if UK laws seek to monitor him closely, will that prevent his "virtual" travels? After all, he was found to have countless obscene images of children on his computer in his UK home.

And in countries with less wealth, fewer if any legislative controls over child abuse, and with scores of shady 'fixers' always ready to facilitate the whims of the rich and famous, children will remain at risk from Glitter and others like him.

Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

So Essex County Council has been given £150,000 by Government to combat teenage knife crime. In partnership with such footballing stars as David Beckham, the County Council intends to spend a large part of this cash on portable knife detectors.

Isn't this slightly missing the point? Wouldn't it make more sense to invest the money in prevention - particularly with such a high-profile partnership - involving young people in sport or other activities which will restore their pride in themselves?

As it is, doesn't this seem rather like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?

(Since writing this posting at lunchtime, I've checked into what Essex are doing on the issue of knife crime, and the council's proud boast that Essex will be the safest county in the UK within five years. Check out the excellent web site 2smart.co.uk)

A long-overdue message

With the news of still more knife-related attacks and deaths over the last couple of days, an email I have received from a constituent seemed both chilling and relevant. Why, he asked, at a time of almost daily murders and assaults involving knives, when visiting a local boot fair was he presented with an alarming choice of hunting and sheath knives on sale to the public?

Of course, he had a point. I contacted Kent Trading Standards and spoke also to my Cabinet colleagues about this, suggesting that it would be setting a strong lead if KCC were to ban the sale of knives at boot fairs on any land or property owned by the County Council. My Cabinet colleagues agreed, but then we discussed the mater further.

Ban the sale of any knives? But where does this stop? Does this mean you couldn't buy a penknife? A set of steak knives? Would you contravene the law if you attempted to sell a canteen of cutlery?

Clearly the issue is a little more complex than could be solved by a simple dictat. But I won't let this drop. This week I'll speak again to our Trading Standards officers and come up with a way to prevent the casual sale of dangerous knives at boot fairs on KCC land. Who knows - maybe other councils - even other boot fair organisers - will follow suit and we can begin to send a long-overdue message.

Over to you, Jacqui Smith...

The death toll from knife-related attacks rose again this week, with a thirty year old male fatally stabbed in Bolton; another in West Bromwich; a third at the "T in the Park" music festival in Scotland, and four more fatal stabbings in London on Thursday.

And the reaction from Government? Home Secretary Jacqui Smith intends to arrange for young people caught carrying knives to make visits to hospital emergency rooms to see victims of knife attacks, to talk to their families and to go into prison to talk to knife offenders.

So just how will that work then? If - God forbid - I'd fallen prey to a knife attack, it's hardly going to improve my chances of recovery to wake in hospital and find I was being asked to meet with a group of knife-carrying youngsters. And while I languished in intensive care, would my family want to discuss the experience with potential new attackers?

Of course not. It's yet another knee-jerk Government response which can't possibly work. Why not open up the dialogue with young people before they start carrying knives? Why not start resourcing our police force properly. Why not task them with making our inner city communities safer so that our young people feel valued and appreciated and don't need to carry knives in the first place?

And - stop press - I've just had an email from a constituent who's asking me how come at the car boot sale he went to today, there was such a large collection of sheath knives available, and why there wasn't a ban?

Over to you, Jacqui Smith...

The new three R's

I watched the excellent documentary 'Crime Invasion: Britain's New Underworld' on the Virgin1 channel tonight.

Investigative reporter Rageh Omaar travelled around Birmingham, pointing out the 'postcode gang' violence between the Burger Bar Boys from the B2 area of the city, and the Johnson Crew from the B6 area. Knives, and firearms have for years caused tit for tat killings, and led to the New Year's Day machine gun slayings of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare back in 2003. Ironically, one of those convicted - Marcus Ellis - was a half brother of one of the murdered girls.

But perhaps most fascinating was a ten second interview with an elderly Asian man who was asked whether there was an effective police presence in the area.

"They are not afraid of God" he said. "How they can they be afraid of Police?"

Birmingham's young people - many armed with powerful and terrying deadly weapons - claim the reason for their behaviour is the new three R's - Revenge, Revenue and Respect.

"They'll shank you good"

Just watching BBC News, and a report about young people and the prevalence of knife crime, in the wake of the deaths of Paul Erhahon and Kodjo Yenga. Their reporter visited South East London, and met with youths in Lewisham.

When asked why he carried a knife, one thirteen year old answered "because everyone wants to kill me these days".

The saddest thing was the two young white teenage girls on the report, who in the "faux Caribbean" accents adopted by so many inner city young people these days, spoke unintelligibly about "all the boys carrying shanks and straps" and how if you bumped into a group who had a 'beef' with your group, "they'll shank you good".

I grew up in South East London, went to school in Lee Green and at one stage lived in Morley Road in Lewisham. And I don't recognise it at all. What on earth has Sir Steve Bullock, elected Labour Mayor of Lewisham and his multi-million pound Council machine, been doing?

Judging from the frightened young people on the BBC, he's given up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7393466.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7232344.stm

The 'Crime Wave' sweeping our country

Just sitting through a Liberal Democrat Party Election Broadcast on television, with that nice - and if you believe his self-proclamations in GQ magazine, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7324541.stm) incredibly virile - Mr Clegg. There's apparently a crime wave sweeping across our country. It must be true, because the lady on the council estate said so, and there's no way she'd get her lines wrong. She said some streets become no go areas at night - she's "terrified to go out".

The only consolation, of course, is that after the local government elections on 1st May, the Liberal Democrats will stop door knocking innocent citizens, and return to whatever it is that they do for the rest of the year.

And once again our streets will be safe to walk.

Of course, the more serious point of this indiscriminate election scaremongering is the fear it creates among the elderly and vulnerable who can't see it for the propaganda it really is. On a recent walkabout in Tunbridge Wells, one of our uniformed colleagues told me how he read a recent newsletter which spoke of "the increase in crime throughout Tunbridge Wells" from the LibDems.

Not only did he not recognise this at all in an area where crime was on a significant downturn, but it actually caused him more work because local residents, particularly the elderly, needed more reassurance that the junk pamphlet really was just that - junk.

Have we learned nothing from Victoria Climbier?

Today saw the shocking and sickening story of little Jessica Randall, who lived just over two months. She never stood a chance - abused both physically and sexually from the moment she was brought home from the maternity unit.

That her father, Andrew Randall personifies evil is clear. That he could have carried out these acts of cruelty and torture is beyond belief. That her schizophrenic mother did nothing to prevent the slow death of her own daughter is tragic.

A post-mortem found nine broken ribs and a fractured skull among her injuries. During her many visits to Kettering General Hospital, over thirty health workers came into contact with Jessica, yet not one of them saw fit to trigger child protection procedures.

Have we learned nothing from Victoria Climbier?

A safer place to live

Went along to a Kent Police Neighbourhood Management conference in Pembury today. The message - echoed over and over again by all partners - is that Tunbridge Wells really is a "great place to live". The main headlines were:

That the fear of crime is far higher than the actual incidence of crime.

That the levels of nuisance crime fell during the summer holidays in those areas where activities were organised for young people.

That in Cranbrook, there had been no reported incidence of "distraction burglaries" since the introduction of the "No Cold Calling" scheme a year ago.

That where there is greater control of the night time economy, incidence of anti social behaviour falls.

And that when everybody works together - as in the Crime Reduction Partnership - "things get done".

But if two hundred people in a hotel in Pembury can see this, why does this Government insist on imposing top down heavy handed bureaucracy and overbearing target setting and performance monitoring, through thousands of highly paid Government "policy officers"?