MPA Committee demands tougher street crime targets

17/02
21 February 2002

The Metropolitan Police have been asked to look again at their proposed performance targets for tackling street crime in the next financial year, following concerns that they are not tough enough.

Members of the Metropolitan Police Authority’s Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee today rejected a Met proposal to reduce the growth in street crime from 39 per cent so far this year, to ten per cent in 2002/3.

Instead, the committee asked that a new target to reduce street crime overall by the end of the year, with month-on-month targets, be used.

Nicholas Long, Acting Chair of the committee, said:

“Merely reducing the growth of street crime is not nearly robust enough a target for so serious a problem.

“Street robberies, often involving violence, have increased alarmingly over recent months, becoming the bane of people’s lives and raising the fear of crime in our communities.

“We need to send out the strongest possible message to street robbers that their activities will not be tolerated and that the police will use all means possible to substantially reduce them by the end of the next financial year.”

The committee welcomed reports that recent Met initiatives, such as Safer Streets, to divert police officers from traffic and other duties to fighting gun and street crime were achieving a significant increase in the number of arrests, although the full effects would take time to be felt. Other initiatives, such as Operation Strongbox, which targets particular crime hotspots, had also proved successful in crime reduction and deterrence. 

Revised targets, which form part of the policing and performance plan for 2002/3, will be put before a meeting of the full Authority next Thursday.

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