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?

CORE Fun Day

Saturday saw the 2008 Fun Day arranged by the Community for Oak Road Estate (CORE) group. Incredibly, it was even better than last year - more fun, more stalls, more people. The Halstead Brass Band were there, lending an old fashioned village fete atmosphere, and the Tri Star Twirlers gave a polished and - unusual given other majorette troupes I've seen recently - unsupervised performance, without an adult standing at the front prompting the steps.

Barbecue, tea tent, Karl's Sweet Shop, raffles, lucky dips, everything you'd expect to see. Gary the Community Warden and Liz Wadey were there, patiently watching their pristine police car being "washed" by young lads with water pistols.

It was good to see both the sound system and the bouncy castle, which I funded from KCC Member Grant getting good use too!

In all, a glowing testament to the organisational skills of Zena, Dave, Jackie and the rest of the CORE team. Well done - we're all looking forward to next year!

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...

hello hello hello

A friend told me with some bemusement this evening about an episode on Saturday. It seems a group of young men, walking home from the pub feeling the worse for wear, noticed that my friend's wife had left the hatchback unlocked on her car. A moment later they had leaned in, taken off the hand brake, and were rolling the vehicle across the road and onto the green opposite their house.

A passer by knocked in the early hours and told my friend, who put on some clothes, grabbed the car keys and moved the car back. Realising this was an annoying yet harmless prank, my friend retired again for the night.

Just moments later three police cars came screaming round the corner, and a number of stab-vested officers pounded on my friends' door. It seems the neighbours had seen the incident and phoned the boys in blue.

But no matter how much my friend protested that this was a prank and that he wouldn't be pressing charges, the police still wanted a statement. Again and again they asked him for his name and date of birth, and when he finally said "look - I don't want to report this, there's no point", the boys in blue told him "but we have to fill in a report".

The real choker came the next day, when my friend's phone rang. It was apparently a senior police officer, ringing to give my friend a Crime Sheet Number.

For what possible purpose? There was no damage, no theft, no real victim and certainly no suspects. This was an open and shut case of blind bureaucracy taking up time which could have been spent in other ways.

Strike while the iron's hot?

According to the Office of National Statistics, since July 2007 - that's just seven months ago - around six hundred and ten thousand working days have been lost due to industrial action.

Police are travelling to Westminster to protest against their "derisory" pay claim tomorrow...

Public sector pay negotiations not going that well then?

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"?