O’Connor: We need a new start
HM inspector of constabulary, Sir Denis O’Connor, details his finding on anti-social behaviour, and comments to the Today programme on the potential impacts on impending cuts:
“We need to examine the impact of the drift away from maintaining order by presence, persuasion, communication, cajoling and when needed coercion, though often short of physical force, to a model principalling geared around control and the use of powers,
“It is time to take stock and change.
“Anti-social behaviour is a blight on the lives of millions who are directly affected; on the perceptions of millions more for whom it signals neglect in their neighbourhoods and the decline of whole towns and city areas; and the reputation of the police who are often thought to be unconcerned or ineffectual. We need a new start.
[To the Today programme] “Confronted by spending cuts, some police chiefs and community safety partnership members may be tempted to reduce the amount of work they do in relation to anti-social behaviour and to concentrate instead upon volume crime,
“All the evidence we have available indicates that this would be a very significant mistake.”
