1 week Ago By [email protected] (Prime Minister Kier Starmer)
Prime Minister Kier Starmer Everyone in Wales deserves to feel safe and secure on their streets. That’s one of the first priorities of any government. Yet last year, there were a million incidences of antisocial behaviour.
Neighbourhood officers being pulled off the beat to plug gaps elsewhere. The number of people who see uniformed officers in their local areas halved in the last decade. And people’s postcodes determine the level of service they get.
We all recognise the problem. Neighbourhoods plagued by fly-tipping. Small businesses blighted by theft or vandalism.
Town centres that are overtaken by loutish behaviour on a Saturday night. Look at the rural crime that plagues North Wales. Or Holyhead, where anti-social behaviour blights the streets.
Or the west end of Rhyl, where communities face a real problem with drug use. These are the things that makes people’s lives hell, that make them feel unsafe in their own homes, and that corrode our communities. It demands action – and that’s what we’re delivering.
So we are going to bring back security to the streets of Wales. That’s why our crime and policing bill is introducing tough new Respect Orders, giving police and councils more power to root out anti-social behaviour. With a return to good, local, neighbourhood policing, we’re putting thousands of bobbies back on the beat in your community.
Last year, we announced an extra billion pounds into policing, including an additional £200m specifically for neighbourhood policing. With our new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers by 2029. All of them will be visible, on the beat, cracking down on anti-social behaviour, and serving the community – not stuck behind a desk or taken away to plug shortages elsewhere.
From July this year, every community will have a named, contactable officer. You will be able to go online and type in your postcode to find details of your neighbourhood policing area, your neighbourhood officers and Police Community Support Officers – as well as how to contact them. Also from July there will be guaranteed police patrols in town centres and other hotspots at peak times like Friday and Saturday nights.
Law enforcement will be visible when it matters most, and tackling local issues like anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and vandalism. This means that by 2029 every force across in England and Wales will have neighbourhood teams that spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols. There will be a range of ways for local residents and businesses to raise their concerns (and demand change) with their neighbourhood policing team, whether directly with their named officer, or by turning up to panel meetings every month.
All of this will help restore people’s confidence and trust that if things go wrong, our police will be there for them. That’s really important. When people lose faith in the police, they stop reporting crimes.
That means criminals can get away with it - and feel emboldened to commit worse crimes. It becomes a vicious cycle, and it’s people in the most deprived communities that suffer most. Building strong community relationships will help to prevent crime in the first place, tackle it when it happens, and stop it from spiralling.
My whole career has been devoted to upholding the rule of law and delivering justice for working people. As Director of Public Prosecutions, I saw the terrible effects of crime and anti-social behaviour for myself. As Prime Minister, I’m committed to rewriting the social contract with the British people.
So we will put the police back on the beat where they belong. We will restore pride and confidence in our communities. And we will restore safety and security to our streets.
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