Police are to be instructed to stand in the middle of crime hotspots - to see if it scares away criminals.They can’t tell by seeing if they catch more criminals and if crime rates go down..?
Officers have asked academics at Cambridge University to monitor the results to check whether the strategy will work.
Or is it merely a case that, when you want to
If the 'micro-policing experiment' succeeds, it could transform the role of the traditional beat officer, who will no longer be expected to cover long distances on his shift.But won’t the criminals just move to…
Instead, the officer would spend periods stationed in an area of 100ft radius, where there is a history of crime.
Ah:
There are suggestions that criminals in these areas would simply move over a few streets and continue their activities.And therefore, it must work here, right?
But Professor Lawrence Sherman, the Cambridge criminologist who will lead the experiment, said the practice had been shown to work in the U.S. in the 1980s.
After all, the US in the 80s is no different to the UK in the…whatever these are.
Susie Squire, political director at the Tax-Payers' Alliance, said the theory was 'simple common sense' and did not need an academic study.You’d think so, wouldn’t you, Susie, but we have a lot of surplus academics, it seems, and they have to be found jobs doing something…
If it worked in the US in the 1980s how come they haven't adopted it wholesale?
ReplyDeleteHow long before they move the Mobile Incident Caravan to the hotspots and convert it into the canteen.
Criminologists (I misspelled that to read criminolo-gits which I prefer) have been the bane of common sense policing for over 30 years. This again is a shedload of money and time wasted on the bleeding obvious. New York style 'zero tolerance' policing has been proved to be the msot effective style. Stop the 'minor' criminal acts from developing into...well from little acorns etc. Hi-viz (and not necessarily in bright yellow/orange tabards) patrols, using discretion and consent is the best form of policing. I could go on but what's the point?
ReplyDeleteSure, being in the crime black spots was part of the US experience but it wasn't the totality. I seem to recall it meant pulling in the troublemakers or creating as much inconvenience for them as possible. I somehow suspect this won't be on the agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe inevitable result will be that the policy will fail and will be quoted as proof that zero tolerance or bobbies on the beat doesn't work.
A PC stands outside the House of Commons and 10 Downing Street but it has not prevented.............
ReplyDelete"If it worked in the US in the 1980s how come they haven't adopted it wholesale?"
ReplyDeleteIndeed...
"Criminologists (I misspelled that to read criminolo-gits which I prefer)..."
Me too! :)
"...being in the crime black spots was part of the US experience but it wasn't the totality. I seem to recall it meant pulling in the troublemakers or creating as much inconvenience for them as possible. I somehow suspect this won't be on the agenda."
Oh, no. That might lead to embarassing questions, and that would never do.
"A PC stands outside the House of Commons and 10 Downing Street but it has not prevented............."
Lol! Very true! :)