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Policing in London

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. It is certainly true that we can and should always learn from good practice in other areas, including other countries, and constantly refine and evaluate what we do in order to improve. Police numbers and police resources—and, indeed, the machinery of criminal justice and enforcement processes—are only one part of the story, as the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs acknowledged. In New York, demographic change had an impact, though we can disagree about the extent. Demographic changes have an impact here too. London is a growing city, and it is becoming a younger city, which has an impact, as do other social changes. Sadly, economic growth tends to equate with certain levels of violent crime, often because people drink more and alcohol-fuelled crime can rise in those circumstances. In recessions, certain kinds of property crimes have a tendency to increase. All those factors have to be taken into consideration. Our experience since 2004-05 tells us that neighbourhood policing works. Westminster has 25 neighbourhood police teams, and my experience is that that can be equated with a significant fall in crime. I congratulate all the police working in Westminster on their very real achievements, including a 7 per cent. drop in recorded offences in the past year alone. That feeds into a welcome sense among members of the public that their neighbourhoods are getting safer. A major piece of research carried out by the neighbourhood police in the Harrow road ward, one of the more deprived wards in my constituency, found that 80 per cent. of those questioned said that there had been ““a noticeable drop”” in crime since the introduction of that team and of the crime-fighting family of neighbourhood wardens and neighbourhood police. That is exactly what we want. People have a tendency not to believe statistics, regardless of their source. They want to see visible policing and they want to know through word of mouth that there has been a change in their community, and all of those things are undoubtedly flowing from the introduction of neighbourhood policing. People’s perception of crime—and their willingness to believe that their streets are safer—is an important end in itself. It is a long way from being where we would ideally like it to be, but it is certainly improving. The improvements in neighbourhood policing and the significant reduction in people’s chances of being a victim of crime have been secured with, rather than against, the communities in which they are happening. We should not understate the importance of that. We all know that assertive policing and the use of stop and search have their place as tools of effective policing, but strong personal relationships, a good understanding of the community, the ability of the police to recognise people—especially young people—and know them by name, and good community intelligence have an even more important role. Those things cannot be achieved in a year or two years, but they are undoubtedly happening. I see it for myself on the streets and I very much welcome it. That is also partly a reflection of the increase in the number of black and minority ethnic officers in the police and among PCSOs. Such appointments are sometimes decried as being a form of political correctness, but the reverse is true. They are essential to achieving policing by consent in communities. One in five police trainees at Hendon are now from black and minority ethnic communities, compared with one in 17 five years ago, and the safer neighbourhood teams reflect the communities in which they operate even more than the general police service. That is absolutely marvellous. We would still like to see some improvements, however, many of which I am sure would attract cross-party support, although they would not be resource-free. The members of the public who talk to me and respond to local surveys say that they want to see neighbourhood police teams patrolling later into the evening—that is one of the most important things—and very early in the morning. The Prince of Wales junction in my community has a serious problem with drugs and antisocial behaviour. My hon. Friend the Minister visited the area when he came to inspect the neighbourhood policing in my constituency a few months ago, and I am grateful to him for that. The early morning drug dealing, between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning, is a real problem. It is recognised by the residents, but the way in which the police teams are structured at the moment does not always allow them to respond to it. Another common complaint, which was highlighted in a recent survey, is the answering of the phone by the police. We need to bear down more effectively on the level of responsiveness. Neighbourhood police teams giving out their mobile numbers works very effectively and is hugely welcome, but when people ring their local police station—not in an emergency, but as part of their involvement in tackling antisocial behaviour and identifying patterns of drug use, for example—they want to know that their calls will be answered. I want finally to talk about children. There is no doubt that the experience of children as victims of crime—and, to a certain extent, as perpetrators—is beginning to be recognised, as we have seen from the high-profile media debate over recent months. However, it is not properly recognised either in statistics or in its implications for public policy. Two teenagers, Kodjo Yenga and Jevon Henry, have been knifed to death in my constituency in the past few weeks. Although the statistics do not appear to show that knife and gun crimes are worsening overall, people’s perceptions are somewhat different. One in three Londoners believe that knife crime is at an all-time high. That perception is a worry, and young people in particular are picking up that perception. Tragically, the fear of crime is driving too many of them to carry weapons in the misguided belief that it is all about self-defence. Others carry weapons in the misguided belief that it confers status in a respect culture. We need to do a great deal more to understand why young people behave in this way. I do not think that we will ever know the extent to which the situation has changed. Many people talk about their childhoods in tougher areas 30 or 40 years ago, and say that everyone used to carry a knife at that time. We cannot say with absolute confidence that society or childhood are more violent than they were, but there is undoubtedly a perception that that is the case. Intelligence-led stop and search is incredibly important in this context, as are enforcement and punishment, but the real issue is to understand why young people are vulnerable to being drawn into the gang culture and into carrying and using weapons. The projects that work with young people, including Working with Men, Boyhood to Manhood, and Kids Company—the most famous example—are doing stunning work, but it has to be recognised that they do not reach one in 200 of the communities that they need to reach. We have already heard about the extent to which local authorities are putting resources into policing, but my worry is that the voluntary and community projects that work with young people are vulnerable to reductions in local authority spending, despite the fact that they play an important preventive role. The prevention agenda is not a soft option. People sometimes say that youth clubs, sports and so on are a soft option and that the way to deal with youth crime involves tougher sentencing and more prison places—