Hughes Calls For Minimum Policing Guarantee For Every Borough

12.00.00am GMT Thu 5th Feb 2004

The government should create a national police force to tackle organised crime and terrorism, according to new proposals on the structure of policing published by the Liberal Democrats today.

Simon Hughes is calling for a new settlement between police forces and local people. For the first time, communities will be given a say in how their neighbourhood is policed. Minimum levels of service will be set out clearly in a Minimum Policing Guarantee of 8 uniformed officers for four years, which will require chief constables and police authorities to come to an agreement with local authorities on how the policing element of council tax is spent.

Alongside these local changes the paper sets out the case for a radical shake-up of the existing national police bodies to create a powerful and effective response to 21st-century crime. Simon Hughes is calling for the creation of three national agencies from rationalising existing bodies:

• A National Police Agency to deal with the most serious national and international crime

• A National Border Force to secure our borders against drug trafficking and immigration crime

• A Financial Crime Directorate to tackle the rise of white collar crime in a globalised economy.

Simon Hughes said: "It is time to inject some democracy into local policing. For too long people have paid their council tax with no guarantees about the level of service they will receive from the police. Our proposal for local police contracts will provide clarity and certainty about the nature of police patrols in each neighbourhood."

"The proposals would enable the police to target organised criminals while improving the visibility of police on the streets and, crucially, giving local people a say in how those police are used."

"The nature of crime is changing. Increasingly the police are faced with organised crime and the threat of terrorism, which means unprecedented pressure is being put on local forces. We have reached the point where we need a dedicated national agency to take the fight to the criminals."

ENDS

A copy of the paper is available on request.