Scrap ID cards and put 230 more police on Lancashire streets
March 10, 2009 8:47 PM
Together we can cut Crime
Professor Bill Winlow (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Fylde Liberal Democrats) today gave strong support to Liberal Democrats proposals to scrap planned ID cards and to use the money saved to fund 230 police extra police officers in Lancashire alone and a total of 10,000 nationwide.
"Highly visible community policing is a top priority for the Liberal Democrats. It always has been" said Professor Winlow.
"Here on the Fylde, we know that Neighbourhood Policing works. Nearby Ingol, which was until very recently part of Fylde constituency, was one of the sites chosen to pilot the National Reassurance Policing model in 2004-5, which has since rolled out as PACT throughout Lancashire. Crime, Anti-Social Behaviour and fear of crime all reduced significantly during the programme, and figures continue to improve.
"It is essential to have dedicated Community Beat Managers who know local residents, and are known by them. The same applies even more so to Police Community Support Officers because they are the eyes and ears of the police - and we should be investing a lot more in them.
"More Police on the streets," say Libdems
"A greater police and community support officer presence on our streets will reduce both crime and the fear of crime, help clamp down on anti-social behaviour and reduce the number of crime 'hot spots'. In these difficult times we need more police officers on the street, not fewer", Professor Winlow added.
"The police should concentrate on tackling drug traffickers and those drug users who resort to crime to feed their habits - we should not adopt anything other than a zero tolerance approach to drug users and traffickers.
"By scrapping Labour's expensive, ineffective, unnecessary and illiberal ID card scheme and through wider savings in the Home Office budget, we will put 10,000 more police on the streets.
He also pointed out that "Excessive bureaucracy and form filling absorb a great deal of valuable police time, with the police spending 57m hours a year on paperwork.
"The Liberal Democrats would reduce this burden on officers both by using civilian auxiliary staff in the police station to allow police officers to spend more time out on frontline police duties, and by streamlining the forms and paperwork police have to fill out.
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