MP gives local communities information about crime on their street corner

4th February 2011
MP gives local communities information about crime on their street corner

Local MP, Gordon Henderson, has welcomed the Conservative-led government’s world leading website www.police.uk which provides data maps that show crime and anti-social behaviour at a street by street level in Sittingbourne and Sheppey. This means, from today, everyone can see exactly what crime is happening and where - right down to the level of their street corner. If anyone has concerns about the crime they see or how issues are dealt with, they can raise them with the police.

Under Labour the police were directed by Whitehall diktat. They spent their time chasing centrally-defined targets, not responding to the needs of local communities they were supposed to be serving. Despite record spending, bureaucracy and form-filling kept police behind desks. They were not on the streets fighting crime. A recent report by the police inspectorate showed only eleven per cent of police officers were visible and available to the public at any time.

The Conservative-led coalition government is introducing a series of measures as part of their plan to fight crime:

• Slashing bureaucracy – steps already taken to save up to 800,000 hours of police time by scrapping the stop form and limiting stop and search reporting.
• Removing all targets and setting the police just one goal: to cut crime.
• Introducing directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police forces respond to the needs of local communities
• Providing transparent information so local communities really know about crime in their area.

Mr Henderson said:

‘I am really pleased that the Conservative-led government has demonstrated they are serious about cutting the levels of crime and anti-social behaviour in our communities.

‘By providing crime data in an open format that anyone can access, even from their mobile, we can all hold the police to account. We can ensure they deal with the issues that actually matter to us locally not those decided by a Whitehall bureaucrat’.