Biggest Police Shake Up in 50 years to reduce crime
Home Secretary, Theresa May, is planning the biggest shake up of policing for over 50 years, hoping to reconnect police forced with their towns. May wants the public to patrol alongside officers on beat, intending to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables in order to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with these new volunteers. And villages will be protected by a new breed of 'police reservists', modelled on part-time firemen and the Territorial Army. May also announced plans to introduce directly-elected police commissioners with the power to sack chief constables, along with the prospect of elected U.S.-style prosecutors. She wants to create a National Crime Agency to 'tackle organised crime and protect our borders' and have regular beat meetings in supermarkets and old people's homes to hold officers to account. There will also be 'virtual' get-togethers on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter and a burning up of the current health and safety regulations that tie police in red tape. May said her reforms, which are part of David Cameron's Big Society project, would 'transfer power back to the people' and make police into 'crime fighters not form writers'.
However, these radical reforms are already being dismissed by Labour as 'policing on the cheap' and just a cover up for cuts in fully sworn officers. Labour responded that the Government was seeking to replace police and community support officers with unpaid volunteers. Ex-Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: 'People volunteer to run the Scouts, not catch criminals. This is simply a cover for massive cuts to the number of police on the beat.'
But ministers said it was about giving local people the opportunities they need to join the fight against the loutish behaviour which took root under the last government. The document says: 'Across the country, we want to support more active citizens: taking part in joint patrols with the police, looking out for their neighbours and passing on safety tips as part of Neighbourhood Watch groups or as Community Crime Fighters.'
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