We need to put police back on our streets, says Yvette Cooper
Town centre crime is up. But neighbourhood police numbers are right down. That is the disgraceful Conservative legacy on law and order. Three weeks on from being appointed Home Secretary after the election, I'm more determined than ever that we need to put police back on our streets, make our streets safer, rebuild confidence in policing and to restore respect for the rule of law.
The latest crime statistics, published last week, have confirmed what many of us already know from our own communities about the way town centres and neighbourhoods have been hit in recent years.
Shoplifting has soared to twenty-year highs, leaving shops chaining everyday items to the shelves, residents fearful about going to local high streets, and retail workers feeling unsafe on the job.
Street crime is surging across the country, with a 40% increase in theft against the person in the last year alone. That’s being driven by crimes like mobile phone theft, which are often now committed in broad daylight because offenders have stopped believing there will be any consequences for their crimes. And antisocial behaviour is rampant in many town centres and communities.
Yet shockingly the number of neighbourhood police on our streets has plummeted. Shamefully more than half of the public now say they never see a bobby on the beat.
Action against antisocial behaviour has crumbled too. For example, the on-the-spot fines that the last Labour government introduced to help tackle antisocial behaviour have collapsed into disuse - just 7,000 issued in 2023 compared to 207,000 in Tony Blair’s last year in power, with 26 police forces issuing no notices at all.
Across the country shop workers and small business owners have told me time and again how hard they are being hit by organised shoplifting gangs - clearing shelves, assaulting staff and getting away with it. Residents have told me about thieves on bikes stealing mobile phones or antisocial behaviour and harassment on the street that makes them feel unsafe to go into town.
That is the Tory record on crime and it is our communities that have paid the damaging price.
This cannot go on.
In the Labour Party we know that security is the bedrock of all other opportunities. So we won’t write this off as ‘low level’ crime as previous governments have done.
So we'll bring in new stronger laws and powers to crack down on anti-social behaviour. The Kings Speech set out our plan for a new crime and policing law that will include Respect Orders to ban repeat antisocial behaviour offenders from town centres. And we’ll give the police new powers to more swiftly seize and destroy deafening and dangerous off-road bikes too.
And we’ll clamp down on shoplifting, reversing the Tory rule which effectively decriminalised thefts valued at less than £200, and take a stand against assaults against our shop workers, with a new standalone offence.
Most important of all I am determined that this Labour Government will put neighbourhood police back on the beat in every corner of the country, with guaranteed local patrols, and officers who won’t be abstracted away every time there is a crisis elsewhere. Those community police are vital to making our streets more safe.
We know it will take time to rebuild our community safety - the shocking state of the economy, public services and the public finances that we have inherited means there is a lot of work to do. But I am determined that this Government will work tirelessly with local police forces and communities to turn things around.
This week I will chair the first meeting of the Safer Streets mission board, bringing together a range of Government departments and partners with a shared aim of keeping people safe.
Because Labour will be a government of law and order that puts the safety and security of our communities at its heart. And the work starts now.
