Local community partnerships cornerstone in fight against crime says MPA Chair

06/00
14 July 2000

The Metropolitan Policy Authority views the building up of partnerships between public and the police, such as those developed with the boroughs, local community groups and other agencies under the Crime and Disorder Partnerships, as a major step in winning the battle against rising crime.

Speaking at this morning’s launch of “Working in partnership to create a safer Barnet” initiative, the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Lord Toby Harris said:

"Local community safety partnerships - like this one - are the cornerstone of efforts to reduce the level of crime. And central to this is the regular auditing of local crime and disorder. This process enables local crime “hot-spots” to be identified and once this has been done all the local agencies concerned can work together to tackle the problems. For example, in a shopping area local businesses, the local Council and the police can work together to identify how the opportunities for crime can be designed out and then use CCTV and business watch systems to tackle any crime that does occur. Similarly, if problems seem to be focussed on a local school, the education authority, teachers and the police can work together to deal with them.

“We must all recognise that tackling crime is the responsibility of all of us. Together we can make a real difference, but progress will not be achieved simply by relying on one agency to do all the work. What is more all the agencies in the partnership should come together on a regular basis to monitor trends in crime and to assemble joint approaches to new developments. This should not be regarded as “rocket science” but as basic common sense."

“I want the MPA to be an active ‘co-operative’ member of local partnerships and over the coming months we will be working with many of the organisations represented here as to how this might best be achieved.

Lord Toby Harris emphasised that the MPA considers consultation with the public as one of its top priorities. He said “the authority has a statutory duty to consult, but we intend to go way beyond this by ensuring that our members are fully informed about the views of all our stakeholders as well as the public before making decisions”.

The Authority and the Met are currently conducting a major best value review of consultation. The review is considering the best means of obtaining the views of Londoners on their priorities for their areas. It is envisaged that the review will produce a draft consultation strategy in October.

Notes to editors

The Metropolitan Police Authority took over responsibility for the Metropolitan Police Service from the Home Secretary on 3 July. The Metropolitan Police Authority held its first meeting on 26 June, 2000 at which Lord Toby Harris was elected Chair and Peter Herbert and Richard Barnes were elected Deputy Chairs.

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