• What We Stand For
  • Law and Order
    • Crime

Crime

Crime is one of the biggest issues facing the country. There is far too much of it, especially violent crime. Too many people don’t feel safe in their own homes, on their own streets and in their town centres. Liberal Democrats want to cut crime to make you safer.

For too long the debate about policing and criminal justice policy has been centred on what sounds tough rather than what works to cut crime. Labour and the Tories have become embroiled in a sentencing arms race in a bid to pander to tabloid newspaper editors and to exploit a politics of fear. 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.

We will scrap ID cards. 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.

The criminal justice system, after decades of catastrophic mismanagement by Labour and the Tories, isn’t working properly. Our prisons are bursting at the seams and those being passed through the revolving door system just get out and commit more crime. Liberal Democrats will give communities a direct say in how petty criminals and those who engage in anti-social behaviour are punished in their area by setting up Neighbourhood Justice Panels. We will make offenders face up to what they have done and allow victims to confront them through restorative justice programmes. We will make prisoners work and contribute to a compensation fund for victims. We will clean up drug addicts with treatment and move the mentally ill out of prison and into more appropriate secure accommodation.