Change of priorities needed to beat crime

The rise in violent crime is a national scandal, and the consequences of a failure to reverse this worrying trend are too appalling to contemplate. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, has denied that the police have lost control of the streets, but the spate of stabbings and shootings in London in recent weeks does not paint a reassuring picture for the law-abiding majority.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, writing on this page, is promising “real action to end this devastating cycle of violence”. New laws to restrict access to offensive weapons are common sense. Ms Rudd’s clarity about the Government’s support for the use of stop and search is also important, especially as senior police chiefs have warned that fears over political correctness have constrained officers from employing this vital policing tactic.

For the Tories to remain the party of law and order, however, the public will demand results – and soon. Confidence in the police has been shaken by a series of high-profile blunders and evidence that crimes such as burglary are not being taken seriously. It will decline further unless order is restored quickly.

Ms Rudd argues that this is not an issue of resources alone. Jeremy Corbyn has outrageously sought to portray himself as the voice of security by calling for more money for policing. Does anyone really think Britain would be safer under the Labour leader, however many officers he employs?

Properly tackling crime will require a reassessment of priorities, however. Following years of zero tolerance and locking offenders up, public policy has lost its nerve and become oddly permissive. Bobbies on the beat have become hard to find. Officers seem to spend inordinate amounts of time pursuing “hate crime” on social media.

This is not what people want. Tougher sentencing, more active policing on the streets, and an end to the tendency to see the police as social workers, rather than the thin blue line between order and anarchy, will all be essential if the Government is to put itself firmly on the side of the public in the fight against criminality.