Knife crime is out of hand because police have become social engineers

SIR – Frank Duffy (Letters, April 5) says there is no place for politics in the criminal justice system. This is also true of the police service itself.

Over the past decades politicians have changed the police service from a law-enforcement and peacekeeping service into one largely engaged in social engineering.

While children and young adults must be made aware of the effects of crime on society, this is not the first role of police, but of social service agencies and the education system.

There is a gang war about to explode in London and all we hear from senior police officers is the need to educate young people. Little is being done to deal with the gangs.

As Mr Duffy says, the police should investigate serious crime, charging suspects if the evidence is compelling and acting in the interests of the victims. At the moment, they seem to concentrate on looking after the criminals and prosecuting the victims.

Peter Amey

Norwich

SIR – On Thursday five London teenagers were wounded by knives. The appalling fact is that this is not unusual.

Am I alone in seeing a correlation between the growth of knife crime and the demise of police powers to stop and search, with only the suspicion of an offence as justification?

Is it not tragically ironic that the communities that were foremost in opposing these powers are now those most affected by the current malaise?

Police powers to enforce the law have too often been attenuated by the path to social acceptance chosen by their leaders.

Stuart Ashton

Whitley Bay, Northumberland

SIR – David Lammy MP appears to have criticised the police by saying that if the dreadful murders in his constituency had occurred in the shires they “would be all over it”.

The question he should be asking is why gun and knife crime is endemic in certain parts of London but not in the shires. He should look at the culture of his own constituents before knocking the police.

Malcolm Allen

Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

SIR – Whether or not we need more policemen on the beat in London boroughs beset by knife and gun crime, it might be better if there were more fathers around.

John Brownjohn

Sherborne, Dorset

SIR – My wife and I were once attacked by four masked men in our house in France. We reacted with such ferocity that we repelled the intruders.

The point is that, confronted with such unusual circumstances, one never knows how one will react. Had I found a knife, I think matters would have turned very ugly.

Fortunately the only weapons I could find on the spur of the moment were two tins of paint.

Peter Horwood

Heathfield, East Sussex