July 19, 2004: New Five-Year Strategy for Crime

Prime Minister Tony Blair has today launched the government’s new five-year strategy for crime. He noted that it marked the effective end of the 1960s liberal approach on law and order. Launching the strategy, entitled Cutting Crime, Delivering Justice A Strategic Plan for Criminal Justice 2004-08 he stated that:

“Looking back, of all the public services in 1997, the one that was most unfit for purpose was the criminal justice system.  Police numbers were falling. Though recorded crime had begun to fall, it was still double what it had been in the 1970s. Detections and convictions were going down. Trials often collapsed. Fines were often not paid. Probation training had stalled. 1 in 6 CPS posts were vacant. There were literally no computers for frontline prosecution  staff. But above all, there was a resigned tolerance of failure, a culture of fragmentation and an absence of any sense of forward purpose, across the whole criminal justice system. And anti-social behaviour was a menace, without restraint.”

The Prime Minister stated that there are three key priorities at the centre of government plans for fighting crime and reforming the criminal justice system. They are:

Firstly, “to revive the idea of community policing, but for a modern world. That means a big increase in uniformed patrol on our streets but linked to 21st century technology – to make sure they have the biggest possible impact on crime and on the public’s fear of crime.”

To achieve this, the government have stated that they will more than quadruple the number of Police Community Support Officers to 24,000 by 2008.

Secondly, according to Tony Blair, the government plan to “target the offender and not just the offence to deal with the criminal lifestyles of the most prolific offenders who cause such damage.” This means more prison places for serious and persistent offenders but also more drug treatment to help them break free from the cycle of crime with the ambition of getting around 1,000 offenders a week into treatment by 2008. Sentencing and probation will likewise focus on the offender. The government plan to extend drug testing from the point of charge to the time of arrest and introduce compulsory assessment of all those who test positive. Bail will be linked directly in many cases to willingness to undergo treatment.

Tony Blair has also discussed a doubling of the capacity to use electronic tagging, and the Introduction of satellite tracking for high risk offenders. 

Thirdly, Tony Blair’s government aims to “toughen up every aspect of the criminal justice system to take on the criminal and support the victim".

All of this is part of what Tony Blair calls “the continued overhaul and modernisation of the criminal justice system”. he stated target for these policies is a 15% reduction in crime by 2008.