Diane Abbott wants stop and search REMOVED to bring down London's knife crime epidemic
DIANE Abbott claims following New York's approach of policing its streets by eliminating stop and search techniques would reduce knife crime in London, amid a shocking increase in fatal attacks in the capital.
Abbott: Stop and search doesn't cause drop in knife crime
The shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4 Today Programme following New York's Mayor Bill De Blasio's approach to crime on the streets of New York would reduce the rising number of murders in the English capital.
Ms Abbott claimed stop and search deteriorated the relationship between the police and the community which inevitably increased tension on the streets of London.
She said: “Evidence based on search will always be an important weapon against all types of crime.
“But random stop and search has poisoned the relationship between the police and the community and in the end, you need the cooperation of the community to deal with the issue.
“And I might point out, talking about New York, that the Mayor Bill De Blasio actually got rid of what they call stop and frisk altogether and crime has continued to go down."
The Labour frontbencher was asked whether a breakdown in the relationship between the police and the public would be a price worth paying if it meant increasing stop and search techniques brought crime levels back down.
She replied: “It would be a price worth paying if we knew it would lead to a drop in night crime and knife crime but the truth is when stop and search was in full-throttle the main thing they found was small quantities of drugs for personal use.
“Living in a city, I’ve always lived in a city, many of these instants have taken place in Hackney, in Walthamstow, in Tottenham, and they are deeply traumatising for the community and very frightening for mothers who feel they say goodbye to their son or daughter in the morning and they may not come back.
“We definitely need more community police officers but, without trying to sound too political, under this Government, under Theresa May’s Home Secretary we’ve seen cuts in police officers on the streets.
“That’s why we’re promising at least 10,000 extra. But the main thing that we should do is try to learn from Scotland."
Ms Abbott also suggested the "public health approach" employed by the Scottish Government in dealing with knife crime had proved to be successful and should be adopted in England.
'What will be different?' Sadiq Khan slammed over knife crime
Random stop and search has poisoned the relationship between the police and the community
She added: “Glasgow was the knife crime capital of this country. They implemented a public health approach to knife crime, specifically where the police worked with education and other parts of the state and last year for which records were kept there were no deaths from knife crime in Scotland.
“So I think that approach which is not just about law enforcement but it’s also about working with the NHS, working with education, working with mental health services.
“I think the Scottish approach has proved to be successful and it wasn’t just about law enforcement.”
The shadow home office secretary's comments followed the latest knife attack in east London leaving a teenage boy in critical conditions.
On Valentine’s Day, Promise Nkenda, 17, from Newham, was found dead in Canning Town from stab wounds to the chest.
And on March 14, 18-year-old Lyndon Davis who played football for Dagenham United was fatally stabbed yards from his home in Chadwell Heath, east London.
The latest death, in Bow, east London, came as figures showed there were 23 murders in London in March, compared with 21 in New York. The cities have similar size populations and police forces.
Since 2014, there has been a 38 per cent increase in killings in London, while in New York they have fallen by 87 per cent since a peak in the 1990s.
Much of the US drop has been put down to the NYPD’s zero-tolerance approach to crime that has seen problem areas flooded with officers.
Sadiq Khan has faced increasing criticism for his record over crime in London during his tenure as Mayor.
The Mayor of London has faced particular scrutiny over the rise of knife crime after there were 80 fatal attacks in the capital last year.
Speaking in the London Assembly earlier this year, Mr Khan blamed funding cuts for the spike in knife crime but others have been quick to dismiss this.