Andrew Stunell on Crime...

Andrew Stunell talking to a local Community Support Officer

Crime is always a key concern for local residents, and one of my highest priorities. Too often people's lives are being ruined by crime, and many people don't feel safe in their own homes or their neighbourhood and town centres. Too many criminals are getting away without being caught or punished, and the government's approach to sentencing is simply not fit for purpose. The Liberal Democrats want to cut crime to make you safer.

I have raised law and order issues with the government on many occasions over the years, from calling for more police on the street, and a reformed criminal justice system, to tackling the government over the illiberal ID cards scheme, and the DNA Database.

For too long the debate about policing and criminal justice policy has been focussed on what sounds tough to appeal to tabloid newspaper editors rather than what works to cut crime. Labour and the Tories have become embroiled in a sentencing arms race, one that has seen them ignore the real issues, and has seen Labour create 3,600 new offences since 1997. We have seen our children criminalised, and an increasingly intrusive "big brother" state erode our civil liberties time and time again. Liberal Democrats refuse to get involved in this political posturing - we know that threats of longer sentences haven't made us any safer. We will concentrate in what works to improve policing and cut crime. By scrapping ID cards, we will put 3,000 more police on the beat. We will reduce police bureaucracy. We will stop ducking the tough choices on police reform and give local people a direct say in policing in their area by electing police authorities. We will target gun and knife crime for extensive intelligence-led stop-and-search in crime hot-spots.

Below are some of my views on the key crime issues facing us, and what the Lib Dems would do to fight crime.

Knife Crime

We have seen a worrying increase in knife crime across the region in the last year. The government's own figures show:

• In Andrew's own area of Greater Manchester, 394 people were arrested for possession of a knife.

• 7,198 people have been stabbed in the North West in the last five years.

• On average there are 28 stabbings per week across the region.

• There has been a 52.8% increase in the number of children treated for stab wounds since 2002.

• Only Greater London has a higher rate of hospital admissions for stab wounds than the North West.

This can't go on. We are locked in a vicious circle where teenagers don't feel safe on our streets, so more of them carry a knife, which just fuels the spiral of knife crime.

One of the keys to stopping knife crime is to increase the chance of getting caught. The best way of achieving this is through intelligence-led stop and search, more intensive and visible policing of hotspots - and by putting more police officers on our streets.

But that won't solve the problem entirely. We need to teach kids from an early age that carrying a knife is wrong, and actually makes you less safe. Talking about the risks of knife crime should be on the school curriculum the same as talking about the dangers of drugs, or the problem of bullying - and it should start in primary school.

Read More:

Knife Crime Soars Across Greater Manchester and the North West.

28 Stab Victims Each Week in the North West.

Sharp Rise in Gun and Knife Crime Must Be Curbed.

ID Cards

The Home Secretary's announcement confirming the launch of the government ID card scheme across Greater Manchester is a total folly and a waste of money. Even more so now that Alan Johnson has confirmed that the scheme will be voluntary. The government's ID cards scheme is illiberal and ill-thought out. The government has proved time and time again over recent months with a procession of lost laptops that they can't be trusted to look after our personal data.

Plus the idea of only trialling the scheme in Greater Manchester is fatally flawed, as is the decision to make the cards voluntary. When stopped by Police and asked to produce their ID Card all the bad guys need to say is 'I'm not from round here', so what's the point? Instead of ploughing on with this deeply flawed, and increasingly unpopular scheme, the government should scrap it immediately and use the money to put 10,000 extra police officers on our streets.

Read More:

Manchester ID Cards Launch Total Folly and a Waste of Money.

DNA Database

Whilst it may sound like a good idea, the DNA Database has fast become an instrument of the government's "big brother" state. In the North West, profiles are being added to the database at a rate of over 200 each day, and in Greater Manchester, there are nearly a thousand children under the age of 13 with a profile on the database. The evidence also shows that you are also three times as likely to have a profile on the North West's DNA Database if you are from an ethnic minority. As if that wasn't enough, there are more than 125,000 people on the DNA Database who have never been charged, nor convicted of any crime. This is particularly galling when there is a huge chunk of the existing prison population - known criminals - that don't have profiles on the database. In addition, over £5 million has also been wasted in the North West alone on entering over 85,000 profiles on the database TWICE.

How can any of this be right? This scheme is single-handedly criminalising an entire generation of young people and ethnic minorities, has wasted millions of pounds on duplicate profiles, and to top it all off, once your on it, whether you've done anything wrong or not, your on it for good. The government is even defying a judgement from the European Court of Human Rights to keep innocents on the database. There is little evidence that this enormous database of DNA from innocent people has led to a surge in crime detection rates. No one has any quarrel with convicted people having their DNA on a database, but innocents need to be removed from the DNA database, and the bad guys already sitting in prison who aren't on it already, need to be added to it if the database is going to be both useful and fair.

Read More:

DNA Database Row [Manchester Evening News].

Almost 125,000 Innocent People to Remain on North West DNA Database After Government U-Turn.

"Shocking" Children's DNA Database [Manchester Evening News].

Over 200 New Profiles Added to DNA Database Each Day in the North West.

Safer Homes

My attention was first drawn to secure building design by local police officers, who told me of a particular new housing estate in Greater Manchester which had be plagued by break-ins through dodgy patio windows. The police, fed up with attending crime scenes there week after week, asked the developer to make simple design changes. He not only refused, but then started to build a second estate with the same faulty windows, and the break-ins started there too.

It remains astonishing that the crime resistance of buildings is not treated with the same or greater seriousness as fire resistance. Fire-proofing of buildings is required as standard in the Building Regulations and this is taken for granted. However, the same can not be said of crime-proofing, known as "target hardening".

Every year there are around 70,000 fires in people's homes. Yet there are over 700,000 burglaries each year, ten times as many, affecting approximately 1.6 million people. With only 13% of the burglaries reported to the police being solved, the need for preventative crime reduction measures couldn't be more urgent.

Whilst Stockport Council has implemented a terrific anti-burglary strategy, which has seen burglaries in the borough fall by 32.4%, one burglary is still one too many.

My Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, passed into law in 2004, allows for the building Regulations to be amended to require higher security standards of all buildings. With recent crime figures showing a 4% increase in burglaries in England and Wales in both the third and fourth quarters of 2008, the case for safer homes couldn't be more compelling, nor more urgent.

Read More:

Andrew Stunell's Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004.

Assaults on Police Officers

In March 2009 I spoke out in support of local police officers after new figures revealed by the Liberal Democrats showed that in Greater Manchester, police officers lost the equivalent of more than eight hundred working days after being the victims of assault. Greater Manchester was the fourth worst-hit force in the country.

Violence against police officers is totally unacceptable, and it has become clear to me that the Government isn't providing officers with the protection they need to do their jobs effectively. We need to see zero-tolerance on attacks, abuse, and threats of violence against police officers, and this means prosecuting the offenders and putting them through the courts. Police officers already face a challenging working environment, and if police officers are to protect us effectively, they themselves need to be protected.

Read More:

Prison Violence on the Up [Manchester Evening News].

One Assault Every Eight Hours in Greater Manchester Prisons.

Injuries Take Police Off the Frontline [Manchester Evening News].

Over 800 Working Days Lost at Greater Manchester Police Due to Assaults on Officers.

We Can Cut Crime

Labour and the Tories are engaged in a continual battle between themselves to be the "toughest" sounding on crime - but their posturing is always for the benefit of the tabloid press, and oftentimes their policies are gimmicks, and their words hollow. They never seem to get anything done.

The Liberal Democrats know that it is action that is needed to tackle crime, not words, and where the voters have put their trust in us, we have delivered reductions in crime and safer streets. From Liverpool to Newcastle, Islington to Sheffield, Liberal Democrats are proving that we can, and do, cut crime. Right here in Stockport, the Liberal Democrat Council has seen a significant reduction in crime, with burglaries falling by 32.4% in the borough last year.

Despite the council's best efforts, crime in still a problem in many areas. This year we have seen gun and knife crime rise across Greater Manchester, with 28 people each week in the North West needing hospital treatment after being stabbed. Assaults on Police Officers have increased, whilst cases of domestic violence and racially motivated incidents have also increased. The crime detection rate in Greater Manchester Police Force Area also remains below the national average. The failed Labour Government, and their Tory predecessors simply haven't done enough to tackle crime in our area.

Lib Dems' Key Pledges on Crime:

• Restore stolen civil liberties by scrapping the Government's illiberal and unnecessary ID cards plan and removing innocent people from the DNA Database.

• Put 3,000 more Police Officers on the Streets.

• Make Prisoners work and pay compensation to victims.

• Map and Target gun and knife "hotspots" with intensive policing.

• Reform the criminal justice system by making national use of restorative justice, and creating a community justice panel in every area that wants one.