Crime 2010 (Croydon Liberal Democrats)

Croydon Liberal Democrats <yourviews@croydonlibdems.org.uk>

Croydon Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010

Crime & Anti-Social Behaviour

We pledge:

To press for more police officers and community support officers, making our streets safer, day and night
To introduce a Safer Croydon Partnership Service, bringing together a host of police services and crime-related council services
To provide guidance and support to young people, steering them away from crime and anti-social behaviour
To tackle the problems of crimes against the person, burglary, vandalism, graffiti, abandoned and burnt-out vehicles and fly-tipping

Levels of serious violent crime, robbery and violence against the person in Croydon are all in the worst third or 20% of all English councils ⁵, leading to large numbers of Croydon residents feeling unsafe on the streets, especially after dark. National Liberal Democrat policy is to increase police numbers in Greater London by 600, whereas Tory Mayor Boris Johnson wants to cut police numbers.

In Sutton, every single category of recorded crime shown on the onespace website is better or much better than in Croydon ⁶.

Liberal Democrat Sutton introduced its Safer Sutton Partnership Service in 2005. It is built on sharing strategy, resources and information between the council and police. It co-manages former council services including drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, anti-social behaviour work and emergency planning with police services such as safer parks teams, safer transport teams, crime prevention advisers and special constables.

Since then, total crime in Sutton is down 11%, criminal damage offences down more than 36%, fear of crime has dropped every year and the service has delivered annual savings of almost £450,000 ⁷. The Safer Sutton Partnership Service is a model of doing more for less - and it works.

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⁵ onespace website, All Performance Indicators, How Safe is the Area, Recorded Crime
⁶ onespace website, All Performance Indicators, How Safe is the Area, Recorded Crime - Sutton and Croydon pages compared
⁷ As reported by Paul Martin, Chief Executive, Sutton Borough Council