Policing

Southampton got ‘respect status’ and one person turned up to the meeting yet 18 people from the council attended would this money have been better spent on policing and solving crimes. Criminals don’t respect the law so what is this other than a PR exercise, put the money directly into policing and reap the rewards then.

There appears to be many issues that the police have to address but one of the biggest is the way that this government has systematically undermined the work that they do. Many of my constituents have asked for zero tolerance in the city, the police would love to do this but they face two major problems the lack of officers i.e. the cost that this would involve and the lack of cells in the city (yes the current debate about John Reid’s failure to provide prison cells are well documented and I wont go into them now).

The lack of cells to hold people means that the police are restricted in the number of people they can arrest. Can this be a way that policing is undertaken? It surely can’t. If we are to make the city safe from not only crime but the fear of crime then funding has to be forthcoming to the police. Again in the Conservative budget we are making provision for police specials in the city. For too long we have heard about what the council is doing to make the city safe but failing time and time again, the council should facilitate the police and provide the support that they need after all they are the professionals.

If we are to make the city a welcoming city for people to live, work and go out we need to avoid the clunking government initiatives. These attempt to help but are more based around how to get statistic evidence which the government can throw about and tell us how safe a place is and what a wonderful job they are doing. People can make decisions for themselves they don’t need a government especially this one telling them how safe they are.