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Policing in London

I do not disagree at all. That is tremendous and if someone is looking for a retirement job, that is absolutely fine. However, the vast majority of the community support officers that I have come across are at the opposite end of the scale; they are younger people who want to progress. I spoke to one only last week in Lawns Park in my constituency and he told me that he had become a PCSO in the hope that that could lead to his becoming a policeman. We should encourage the people who embark on that career to go further. I have spoken to senior policemen locally and they all agree that we need more police with full powers. Let us not have more community support officers at the expense of police who have the full powers to do the job. That is what people want, and most police community support officers would like the opportunity to progress. On safer neighbourhood teams, I hope that the Minister will take on board the point that it is unbelievably silly—if I can put it that way—to base community support officers and safer neighbourhood teams on local government ward boundaries. Whoever came up with that idea needs to go back to the drawing board. We should base the teams on proper local communities. We should not base a police team on ward boundaries that depend on electoral numbers and that cut through roads and communities. I could give many examples of how administrative, ward and borough boundaries cut through things, but I will not because we do not have much time. However, community support officers cannot step to the other side of the road if it is not in their area. We need to base neighbourhood teams on neighbourhoods and not ward boundaries, which make no sense at all when it comes to policing. I have raised this issue with my borough commander, Chief Superintendent Sultan Taylor, who I commend for his service to the London borough of Havering. He does a magnificent job. He and I have discussed the issue and put forward ideas about having teams that are based on proper communities with defined boundaries, but we cannot do that because we have to base the teams on ward boundaries. Quite what local government electoral boundaries have got to do with neighbourhood policing is beyond me. The system needs to be changed, and I hope that the Minister will look into the issue and take action. We will have more effective policing if it is based on a proper community such as Collier Row, Rush Green, Gidea Park or Ardleigh Green in my constituency. If we simply base the teams on artificial ward boundaries with artificial names, we will have to return to the drawing board so that we can base the teams on proper neighbourhoods. Three recent incidents in my constituency have caused me much concern. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Mr. Evennett), because he made it clear that we should be looking to improve people’s quality of life. Yes, crime is going down in certain respects—in other respects, it is not—but people do not see that. They think that we are talking about meaningless statistics that are not relevant to what is happening on the ground. The first example relates to what is happening in Collier Row, a medium-sized shopping area in Romford. Huge numbers of incidents of antisocial, yobbish and loutish behaviour have taken place. There is graffiti and vandalism, but it took a long time for the local council to install CCTV cameras. I commend it because it has now done so, and in particular I commend Councillors Sandra Binion, Geoffrey Starns, Robby Misir, Melvin Wallace and Peter Gardner. They fought for that CCTV, and such systems must be rolled out much more quickly in local shopping centres so that we can tackle youths who make people’s life a misery. The second example relates to Havering college in Ardleigh Green road in my constituency. Recently there were four knifings on one day, with gangs of hooligans coming to the area from outside. Three people were stabbed and four injured in total. Two weeks ago, I attended a huge public meeting at the college attended by nearly 300 people, all of whom are furious at the lack of a response by the police and the college to tackle the problem. However, it goes on. People want to live in peaceful residential areas, and they do not expect to be subjected to violence imported from outside. I am pleased to say that the chief superintendent is taking action, along with the principal of the college, but that is closing the door once the horse has bolted. Frankly, it is too little, too late. We need discipline. We need to ensure that educational establishments do not tolerate people coming in from other areas and committing crimes, particularly violent crimes. The third recent incident was a shooting in Ardleigh Green—a drug-related murder. Those sorts of things are going on even in areas of outer London where one would not expect them to happen. Action needs to be taken. I recently visited the shops in Hornchurch road with local councillor Georgina Galpin to talk to shopkeepers who are being plagued by yobs, vandals and crime. Getting the local police to come down and take serious action has been difficult. I am pleased to say that they are now taking the issue seriously. More action needs to be taken. We need greater resources and a fairer spread of resources to the outer London boroughs. Before I sit down and allow the Minister to respond to the points that have been made this afternoon, I have three final points to make. First, please let us give the police back the power that they need to do the job. Let them get out and do the job that they are meant to do, instead of writing paperwork all day long. Let us give them the power and respect that they deserve to tackle crime and criminals, so that people can have confidence in the police once again. Secondly, let us have discipline. I have not heard that word this afternoon from too many people, but I hope that there will be more discipline in our schools and educational establishments, and of course at home. It is vital that young people are brought up to know the difference between right and wrong, and that the punishment fits the crime. That is my final point: we need to have punishments that deter people. We need judges and courts to give out sentences that mean something so that, at the end of the day, people are frightened to commit crime and they know that it is unacceptable in our society. If we have a wishy-washy approach to crime and disorder and if we allow the police to be bogged down in paperwork and political correctness, how on earth do we ever expect to beat crime in our country?