Cut the forms and keep the Police

Today was police day. On the homefront I met our new Borough Commander and nationally the party was launching our policy of zero tolerance policing and the end of 'sociological mumbo-jumbo' blurring the distinction between right and wrong.

Our new Borough Commander is a change for the Borough. She seems very focused on the problems we as a Borough face but is also open to new suggestions on how policing can be improved in the Borough. She is also experienced in Kingston having worked here before. It was a valuable first meeting and I feel a new approach to the actions the Police can take to tackle some of the serious issues we have over anti social behaviour and drunkenness, especially in Kingston town centre.

Whichever way you put it the Police have an impossible task. The Government have introduced "safer neighbourhoods" as a way of getting more localised and visible policing and yet as I have mentioned in an earlier blog there are inherent risks in what they are doing and how they are doing it. At the same time they are expected to put more police on the streets to tackle anti social behaviour and fill in more forms at the same time.

Which is I suppose where the Michael Howard speech comes in. It is frankly incredible that from March next year the Police are expected to fill out a form every time they stop someone - this is ludicrous. I hear all the cries about how civil liberties are likely to be abused and how will we know that the Police are being even handed in the way they deal with ethnic minorities etc etc. But are we really going to be surprised when the Police are not on the streets because they are filling out forms to provide ethnic monitoring, or the nurse is not attending to someone in casualty because they have to fill out a form to show they are meeting some target? Does everything that public servants do need a form to monitor it? Is a form the only way we can be sure that the ethnic minority groups are not being stopped more than others? There has to be a better way - and in the meantime we should let the Police get on with their job and the nurses and doctors with theirs and if the other parties do not trust these people to do this then they should be honest and say they 'do not trust the Police'. In any case there is a vast difference between 'stopping' and 'searching'. Currently if the Police 'search' someone they do need to fill out a form and this would continue. What the Conservatives are against is extending this form filling to every time an officer 'stops' someone.

Hysterically of course the Government jumps up and down and screams about it all and how MH cannot possibly afford this - which is total baloney. Given how much taxation has risen in this country and how much this Government is spending of our money it is a nonsense. I say "cut the forms and keep the Police".

The Lib Dems? Well once again they managed to condemn the whole thing as a disaster clearly indicating they think filling out forms is a good idea. They also put out what they called a 'well worked set of proposals' which basically amounted to adding in more cost for a bunch of national quangoes called a National Police Agency, a National Border Force and a Financial Crime Directorate. More forms, no more Police except they might offer 'softer' jobs for those nearing retirement to stay on longer. Please....We have had this silly approach for too long. We know all about the Lib Dem Plans to not jail first time burglars and giving prisoners the right to vote, what people write to me about what they want done is more Police and fast, fair and forceful enforcement of penalties.

So a good Police day all in all and finished the day off with a trip to the cinema to see Harry Potter - great movie - but after all that crime maybe all I wanted was a bit of escapism!!