Two things struck me this week. First thing was that New York used to be one of the most dangerous and violent cities in the world, not any more though! We were there last autumn and it felt very safe whereas London feels very unsafe. So what happened? I’ll tell you what happened - zero tolerance and good policing is what happened. In NY there is a very, very high police presence. They rule the streets with serious hardware and aren’t going to take prisoners. But, strangely enough, that doesn’t feel threatening in fact it feels safe. In London you are lucky to see a policeman, the nutters rule the streets and it’s all very scary.
The second thing that struck me this week is that there was a time when we had zero tolerance here too. But we did it “our way”, very British but very effective. Now instead of good old-fashioned PC Plod who wasn’t afraid to clip a kid around the ears and send him packing if he stepped out of line we have no-go areas where police don’t patrol in case it incites rioting! OK, times move on, but for goodness sake we should still be able to rule by law not by violence and intimidation.
I have often had conversations with OG about the rowdiness of our local market town where you see mobs of drunken youths, spitting and fighting on a Saturday night. And when you read the local paper it is always the same few scumbags committing the crimes. These characters are habitual offenders, well known to the police and yet they still walk the streets. Why?
Well, halleluiah, guess what? Roger Baker the Chief Constable of Essex thinks the same. At his first press conference three years ago he warned, “If you are planning on committing crime in Essex, bring a toothbrush because you won’t be going home”.
Where other forces are closing 24-hour stations, he is opening more. Instead of simply handing out a crime number he insistes that anyone reporting a crime is visited. In his first year he moved 220 desk-bound officers back on to the beat and has pledged an extra 600 within 5 years. And he is doing this by making savings, it won’t cost the tax payer a penny.
And this is the real genius of the man. In January he launched Operation Leopard on the Three-Four Estate in Vange, near Basildon. The development of Thirties terraces ad Sixties flats was plagued by vandalism, open drug use and marauding youths intimidating the residents (much like our local market town).
The strategy was simple but ingenious. First, police asked residents who was causing the problems and identified a hard core of only 15 troublemakers.
A team of three special surveillance officers with neighbourhood and Community Support Officers then followed these yobs everywhere. They knocked on their doors in the morning to inform them they would be watched that day and stalked them for 16 hours a day for three weeks. They also videoed them. At first the targeted troublemakers thought it a bit of a joke. Then they complained it was intrusive. In the end, they were worn down.
Before Operation Leopard, more than 20 crimes a week were being committed in the Vange area with the Three-Four a hotspot. The police team carried out 60 spot-checks and arrested four people for offences including cocaine possession and assaulting a police officer.
Crime levels went from a spike to zero.
Six months on they are still “incredible low”. One lady on the estate said “it was pure bliss, it was miserable living here before. You were constantly looking out of the window to see if your car was being vandalised. There were youngsters hanging around in groups causing a nuisance. They would think it was really funny to spit at you. There was graffiti and vandalism, kids openly smoking joints or skulking about with their hoods up so you can’t see their faces. It was very intimidating. I wouldn’t walk my dog in the evening by myself and I would think twice about it in the day. But for the whole week that there was this police presence it was wonderful.
Operation Leopard is now being developed for trouble spots throughout the entire country. The problem is that you just know the PC / Health & Safety loony brigade will strongly object, down will descend the fog of lunacy and instead of embracing and expanding something that really works it will be scaled down until it has become totally impotent.
OK, you could wonder if the 15 trouble-makers simply moved the problem to the next town. I’m sure they did, but if we keep chasing them down they will either stop or go to prison. We are not talking about big numbers here. And I would hazard a guess that the numbers are quite small in every community. Lets hunt the buggers down and win back the streets.
