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Johnson, out selling the plans, claimed “fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs” of offenders would be visible to the public, paying for their crimes. Those issues identified by police leaders include poverty and social inequality that have widened in recent years, as well as changing dynamics in drugs markets.Īnother police leader said of the measures, some of which were recycled from past announcements: “It is like there has been an explosion in a strategy factory.” Why tag burglars on release from prison, and not domestic violence offenders, or rape suspects?”Īsked if it would cut crime, the chief said: “No, but it will waste some officers’ time. One chief said of the overall package: “It is just weird … and a bit gimmicky. Some mental health calls take two hours.”
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“It is about what you do after you answer the call. It needs to be about the quality of what you do.”Īnother chief constable said: “It’s a real over-50s assumption that picking up the phone is an indicator of effectiveness. One chief constable condemned a plan for league tables measuring how quickly forces answer emergency and non-emergency calls: “So forces can answer the phone, say ‘hello’, and put it down again. Some police chiefs privately mocked parts of the government plans, which the Guardian understands were launched without consulting leaders in law enforcement or frontline officers.
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“The intention is to make the price of crime visible,” one Home Office source said. Under the plans, offenders doing community service would wear hi-vis as they clear canals or clean graffiti. Making unpaid work “more visible” by getting offenders to clean streets and open spaces. Trialling the use of alcohol tags – which detect alcohol in the sweat of offenders guilty of drink-fuelled crime – on prison leavers in Wales. Permanently relaxing conditions on the use of section 60 stop-and-search powers for police to tackle knife crime.Įxpanding the use of electronic monitoring for thieves upon release from prison. The government’s tinkering proposals do little to reverse the effects of the closure of 295 courts in England and Wales, or to deal with the massive cuts to drug treatment services, the police, the CPS and the whole justice system his government has made since 2010.” “Delays in the courts are at a record high, while convictions for the most serious crimes including rape are at a record low. “It is just a rehash of policies that won’t make our streets safer or prevent offending,” he said. The shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, said the plan was “tinkering” and would do nothing to rebuild a broken system.
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The criticism of Johnson’s crime plan is the latest in a series of setbacks for the prime minister’s domestic relaunch, after his landmark “levelling up” speech was mocked for being light on detail and his plan to overhaul social care delayed by Treasury wrangling and a Conservative backlash over tax rises. But senior police officers, the rank and file, opposition politicians and even some in business rebuked it. The crime initiative was supposed to show the Johnson government gripping the agenda. Police chiefs have condemned Boris Johnson’s high-profile strategy to tackle crime as “weird and gimmicky”, while plans to increase stop-and-search were criticised for ignoring the evidence.
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