Boris Johnson launches crackdown on rising crime rates
The use of stop and search powers in the UK is set to be permanently expanded under Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to reassure voters he has a plan to bring down crime rates.
The PM is under pressure to tackle the significant rise in violent crime in recent years and has billed his new plan as part of the government’s commitment to “levelling up” parts of the country plagued by crime and antisocial behaviour.
The “beating crime plan”, set to be announced on Tuesday, will include an expansion on the use of ankle tags for prisoners released on probation, a trial of “alcohol tags” on prison leavers in Wales and “visible” street cleaning community service for criminals.
One of the headline proposals of the policy is the strengthening of stop and search ‘Section 60’ powers, which have long been controversial because of their disproportionate impact on black communities. Under the new plans, officers will be able to search people without reasonable suspicion in places where serious violence may occur.
The strategy will also outline plans for every neighbourhood in England and Wales to have a named and contactable police officer as well as a league table for 101 and 999 answering times.
The PM said the plan, which builds on the Conservative Party’s manifesto promise to crack down on crime, will ensure everyone has the security and confidence that comes from having a safe street and a safe home. But the strategy has been met with dismay by Labour MPs and campaigners.
Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, branded the plans as “discriminatory” and said the policing package would “subject more young people to further coercion, punishment and control”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the initiative as a “ridiculous gimmick”, while Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the announcement of “rehashed policies” would not make the streets safer.
Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, said the plan was “a checklist of gimmicks designed to get Priti Patel good headlines in the tabloid press in the short term” but that it did “nothing about the long term problems in the criminal justice system.”
However, the headlines come at an awkward time for Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is currently engaged in a public row with the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW).
The PFEW, which represents 130,000 officers, has publicly criticised Patel over the decision not to offer them a pay rise in the wake of the Covid recession and last week said it had no confidence in the Home Secretary.
In a letter to Downing Street, the PFEW said: “We don’t need old ideas presented as new, we need genuine investment for the whole of the criminal justice system and genuine consultation over new ideas. Without that, this is just another ill-thought out initiative.”