Is That All There Is?

Praise the Lord! We’re all saved.

The Home Office has published an action plan for tackling violence:

It sets out what the government, together with police and local agencies, will do over the next three years to cut homicide, knife crime, gun- and gang-related crime and sexual and domestic violence.

But fellas, what about the drink related violent crime? Oh OK lets not talk about that then. OK where was I, oh yes the action plan that doesn’t address the biggest problem.

So what is the action plan about. Well some is good, more Safe Centres sounds good but theres a lot of filler and guess what, more red tape and admin for the cops.

 “Don’t be scared. Be terrified. Look in the eyes, the eyes”

1) Prosecuting those found carrying knives, and levying tougher sentences for knife crimes

• The prisons are full. You aren’t building more fast enough. I am guessing that acquisitive crime is going to be pushed harder towards non-custodial. Hey, all property is theft anyway.

• A 2004 MORI survey found knife carrying behaviour in 28% of mainstream school children.

2) Providing police with 100 portable knife-detecting scanners and 400 search wands immediately, and making more available over the next year

• Great, expensive techy kit that will break down and gather dust after a few months. The search wands will come in handy for footy and stuff though.

3) Launching a new £1 million campaign to challenge the idea that weapons are glamorous, and address the fear and peer pressure that drive youngsters to carry weapons.

• Just what the Doctor ordered, another AskDave campaign with even poorer funding. £1 million will just about fund a “Just Say No To Knives” sticker for every kid. Maybe not even that. I guess it depends on how much you blow upfront on the graphic design

4) Investing more than £20 million over the next three years on multi-agency interventions and information sharing between police, councils, volunteer groups and health workers to identify people likely to commit acts of serious violence

• Its called MAPPA. We are already doing it.

5) Doing more to protect children from sex offenders including a pilot in four police force areas (Cleveland, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire and Warwickshire) to allow the release of more information about offenders convictions to certain members of the public.

• Definately not going to be a red tape nightmare that one.

“And what do you do?”

To criticise, I suppose you need to have an alternative and here it is.

Lets enforce the laws we already have

Do a bit of very basic “Hot Spot” analysis to find out where people are getting stabbed / teeth kicked in / whatever.

Go there in numbers, regularly.

Stop and search people then arrest them and charge them if carrying weapons.

Gather evidence

Arrest and charge people using the Offences Against The Person Act

Do some serious work on Town Centre Licensing

That’s off the top of my head and has at least as much chance of reducing violent crime as this latest action plan.