BRITAIN: Violent crime is worse than ever, say front-line police officers

BRITAIN: Violent crime is worse than ever, say front-line police officers
Date: Apr 27, 2008 9:23 AM
PUBLICATION: The Daily Telegraph
DATE: 2008.04.27
SECTION: News
PAGE: 012
BYLINE: MELISSA KITE, Deputy Political Editor
WORD COUNT: 433

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A VOTE-WINNING ISSUE Violent crime is worse than ever, say Pcs on the front line

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GUN, KNIFE and gang crime is the worst it has ever been, according to a survey of
1,200 front-line police officers.

Beat officers say they are witnessing an ever-worsening trend of violent street
crime, despite ministers' insistence that violent offences are falling.

The findings come as Labour faces an uphill battle to convince voters that they
are getting on top of crime ahead of Thursday's local and mayoral elections.

The issue is particularly hot in London, where Boris Johnson has put tackling street
crime at the heart of his campaign to unseat Ken Livingstone as Mayor.

The research, by Mads Qvortrup, professor of advanced social sciences at the Robert
Gordon University in Aberdeen, found that 80 per cent of borough police officers
agreed or strongly agreed that knife crime was worse in their community than five
years ago. Only eight per cent disagreed.

Some 70 per cent judged that gun crime had worsened and nearly three quarters said
they had seen a rise in gang crime.

Interestingly, there was no such consensus on the question of police wearing guns
to combat the violence. When asked whether they wanted to carry firearms, more than
half of officers said they did not know.

Prof Qvortrup, who conducted the research by emailing police constables in mainly
urban areas such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds, said he
had been surprised by the findings.

He said: "These were not top brass or desk officers, but police on the beat
and it is their views ministers ought to be most interested in when formulating
policy. They showed a level of cynicism about crime that we haven't seen before.
It is also remarkable because it flies in the face of other research from the Home
Office and the British Crime Survey, which says gun crime is falling.

"All figures will be spun, but if you go and ask the officers who are on the
beat, dealing with parents whose child has just been shot, they reveal an undercurrent
of cynicism and a deep concern about the way things are going.''

Figures published in the British Crime Survey show that overall crime rates fell
by 12 per cent in the last three months of 2007. However, the figures do not include
crimes that have not been reported to the police or that the police decide not to
record.

The Tories have said they will publish crime "hotspot maps'' and Mr
Johnson pledged last night to carry out further soundings of police officers'
views if he became Mayor.

He said: "The Labour Mayor and his Government claim we feel safer. This just
isn't true. In London and across the country, people are desperately worried
about gangs, guns and knives.

"We need a Government who take crime seriously. We need to get weapons off
the streets. The police must be freed from red tape to do their jobs.''