Chris Philp: With crime and antisocial behaviour unacceptably high it’s time to ‘Take Back our Streets’

Chris Philp MP is the Shadow Home Secretary.

We can all feel that order is breaking down on our streets and within our communities.

Crime and antisocial behaviour are at unacceptably high levels and the social contract that helped make Britain unique is coming apart at the seams.

We used to be known as one of the most orderly countries in the world. But now, every day, too many people witness things that anger and alarm them: towns blighted by graffiti and litter, cannabis being openly dealt and smoked on the street, shoplifting rampant, phones being snatched or yet another headline of a young life cut short by a knife. Our communities have become less civil and more dangerous. I hear it everywhere I go, with good, ordinary, decent citizens telling me they are fed up. People are often afraid on their own high streets.

It does not have to be like this.

We know that when respect for the rules that bind our communities together breaks down, it doesn’t just make the law-abiding majority feel unsafe, but it also fuels a culture of lawlessness that leads to far worse crimes.

The first duty of government is to protect the public. That means taking action against those who make their neighbours’ lives a misery. It means backing our police officers to enforce the law – every law – no matter the perpetrator.

As Conservatives, we are clear who we stand for: the law-abiding majority who agree the police should be backed to enforce the law on everyone.

That’s we we’ve launched our plan to Take Back Our Streets.

The first priority is restoring a strong police presence where crime is most concentrated. Conservatives will recruit 10,000 extra police officers and deploy hotspot patrolling across the 2,000 highest-crime neighbourhoods. A quarter of all crime occurs in these 5 per cent of neighbourhoods. Concentrating visible policing in these places prevents offences and deters repeat offending. Our plan to hire 10,000 more officers will allow us to concentrate police presence in these areas and prevent around 35,000 crimes, including violence, theft, anti-social behaviour and public drug use.

We will also give officers the tools they need to disrupt crime before it escalates. Conservatives will triple the use of Stop and Search to take knives and drugs off the streets and increase arrests.  Stop and Search is one of the most effective tools for removing weapons and drugs and disrupting violent gangs. But political pressure not to use stop and search is shackling the police.  We will roll out stronger Section 60 coverage in hotspot areas and lower the bar to using stop and search by allowing officers to act on a single suspicion indicator outside those hotspots. This will deliver around one million additional searches a year and, based on detection rates, around 300,000 more arrests.

Technology will also play a role in strengthening enforcement, so we will roll out Live Facial Recognition in crime hotspots to catch wanted criminals.  Trials have already shown strong results, including 1,000 arrests of wanted criminals during a Metropolitan Police trial and a 12 per cent reduction in crime in Croydon town centre. Expanding its use in the 100 highest crime areas is expected to lead to around 22,000 arrests of wanted offenders.

Alongside stronger enforcement, our plan will ensure that low-level offences no longer go unanswered. Conservatives will bring in “Immediate Justice” for low-level offences, so police can issue swift, visible community penalties for offences such as criminal damage, drunk and disorderly behaviour, harassment without violence, minor assault and first-time drug possession. We will require offenders to clean graffiti, tidy parks and repair community spaces – with prosecution if they do not. These community penalties will deliver around 2 million hours of visible clean-up work while reinforcing consequences for offences.

The plan will also end the culture of police walking past obvious law-breaking. Conservatives will crack down on cannabis and end the culture of police walking by.  Two-thirds of police officers believe it cannabis use has effectively been decriminalised – in other words, the law is not being enforced. A walk-on-by culture has developed, not least because of political pressure from local leaders like Sadiq Khan. Even where the police do stop people, it often only leads to an informal on-street warning. Under the Conservative proposal, police would be required to intervene in all cases of cannabis possession, issuing formal cautions or Immediate Justice assignments for first offences, and automatic prosecution in magistrates’ courts for repeat offences.

Public safety will also be put first in the management of serious mental illness. Conservatives will overhaul Labour’s Mental Health Act and stamp out the ideology that has seen an obsession with racial targets put ahead of public safety – with tragic consequences. An excessive focus on reducing the use of sectioning on racial grounds, is allowing seriously mentally ill individuals to remain in communities, when they should be detained for the safety of the public and themselves.

We will also tackle the emerging forms of disorder that are making streets less safe. Conservatives will curb dangerous e-bikes and e-scooters on pavements, mandating police intervention and strengthening penalties.  These vehicles are increasingly used for snatch theft and to evade pursuit, and they pose a direct risk to pedestrians, particularly children and the elderly. Conservatives will update the law and raise penalties, so enforcement has real bite.

Finally, Conservatives will stamp out ghost plates that evade ANPR, enabling organised crime, dangerous driving, and wider lawlessness. Current penalties do not reflect the seriousness of number plate fraud which enables serious and organised crime. Conservatives will introduce tougher criminal consequences for manufacturing, selling, and using ANPR-evading plates, and will target the supply chain that makes this possible.

Britain works best when the rules are clear and enforced. The Conservative plan to Take Back Our Streets will restore visible policing, back officers to act decisively, and ensure that crime and anti-social behaviour face real consequences.

We are on the side of the law-abiding majority.   We will relentlessly pursue those whose criminal activity makes life intolerable for the majority with a zero tolerance approach.

It’s time to Take Back Our Streets.