Telegraph
01 Sep 2009, 10:00PM BST

in Brief:

Police who refuse to visit every victim of crime have been accused of "arrogance" by one of the country's most senior officers.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the outgoing head of Merseyside Police, said it was “intolerable” if officers do not appear to care or listen to what victims need.

In a public attack on the tactic of “screening out” certain crimes, the chief constable said it is the duty of officers to do the “right thing” by those who pay their wages.

Instead of selecting which offences are worthy of attendance, Mr Hogan-Howe said every victim should be offered a visit, no matter how minor the crime.

He is the latest to demand a back-to-basics treatment for those preyed on by criminals and it comes a month after MPs on the Commons justice committee warned victims are being failed by a justice system that is weighted in favour of offenders.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hogan-Howe said: “It’s wrong for the police service to be arrogant and say we don’t attend a certain kind of incident. You have to go with the victim’s requests.

“Probably only a third of what we deal with is crime. There are many victims of other things but they are still a victim in one way or another and they deserve as much attention.

“I think what’s intolerable is if we don’t appear to care to listen, to do our best to help them through a difficult time and to take reasonable steps to catch the offender and stop it happening again.

“We should do the right thing for the reasonable taxpayer.”


Other key points:

Paul Holmes, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said his comments are "indicative of how detached much of the public, including many victims, feel from their local police force".

“Years of centralised control and Whitehall bureaucracy under Labour has created a system of targets and numbers that has distorted police priorities.”

Almost 60 per cent of people polled in the British Crime Survey agreed that the police and the local authorities were dealing with the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that mattered to their community.

“The criminal justice system as a whole seems to be considerably out of sync with public expectations.”

David Hanson, the policing minister, said: "We are committed to putting the public at the heart of policing with local crime information, less bureaucracy, more visible policing and better information.

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6122366/Police-arrogant-over-crime-victims-warns-chief-constable.html

Fluff.........

I commend Mr Hogan-Howe for recognising the demand a back-to-basics policing but the hard facts of the task are the local beat Bobbie has long gone and so has his common sense approach to society.

We have moved on to a law enforcement agenda that yes we may have some great officers ( in the decline ) but it still remains that the terrorism act and anti terrorism laws are oppressing liberties.

The fact that you can be arrested for a crime you have yet to commit and be detained for 42 day without charge,

Anyone taking a photograph of a police officer could be deemed to have committed a criminal offence because of a new law - Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act and could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Counter terrorism Act 2008: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080028_en_1

In fact you are a terrorist until you prove other wise..../em> All very sad really