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UK: Report set to criticise police
Britain's police forces will face severe criticism in a think-tank report to be published next week. The study by right-of-centre group Civitas questions the effectiveness of forces in tackling crime. It says the police spend too much time behind desks instead of fighting crime on the streets. The result, it says, is that crime is "a very low-risk activity for the criminal".America, France and Germany have suffered similar sharp rises in crime to Britain since the 1960s but have tackled them more effectively, the report says. According to The Sunday Times, unlike their counterparts in other countries, British police have failed to focus on prevention of crime and zero tolerance of low-level disorder and antisocial behaviour. The rise in crime in the UK is "so spectacular" it is "difficult to comprehend", the report argues. Britain is now "a seriously crime-afflicted and disintegrating society". The report says that burglaries have increased more than fivefold from 72,000 in 1964 to 402,000 last year. And there are now 33 robberies of personal property for every one 40 years ago. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), questioned the report's findings. It said the authors had accepted crime in Britain had dropped back to 1981 levels but had failed to give the police any credit for that. Chris Fox, ACPO's president, said the think tank's conclusions did not "reflect the reality" of the police force's achievements in recent years. I'll leave it to our cousins to wade in on this topic... I do have one little pic... Posted by: .com 2005-01-02 |
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