Crime scene! Police could swap visits for a video chat
POLICE will offer some victims of crime a video chat rather than in-person visits due to cost cuts.
Scotland yard’s ex-commissioner, Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe, said his old force was holding a trial of the scheme, which he claimed would save money and benefit victims reluctant to have police at their door.
But critics say it is vital some crimes – such as domestic abuse – are always assessed in person and warned the practice could lead to difficulties in securing meetings in person with police.
it comes as in-person GP visits were also found to be dramatically lower than they were pre-pandemic.
in a speech at the emergency Services Show, Lord Hogan-Howe, Scotland yard commissioner from 2011 until 2017, said: ‘the Met has got one [a pilot for reporting crime] at the moment where not only do you have a phone call but you follow it up with a video conference to see whether or not you need a visit. frankly, a police officer coming to your door sometimes can be a negative. if you are reporting your neighbour, for example, then you may not want officers at your door.’
He also said the evidence suggested ‘satisfaction goes up’ with video calls and that they were not ‘very expensive’. Scotland yard did not reveal any more details of the scheme.
a serving senior officer said the scheme would be sensible in some cases but also said there were many crimes that required an in-person assessment from an experienced officer. ‘in cases of domestic abuse, for example, it is vital that there is some face to face interaction for a number of reasons,’ they said.
‘an experienced officer is a reassuring presence to a victim, and they can pick up on things that cannot be communicated over a video call like injuries and a hidden threat to the victim.’
In future, pensioners will pay a maximum £86,000 over their lifetime, before the Government steps in. And while precise details about the scheme are frustratingly light, the signpost is promising.
But while we strongly agree with what Mr Johnson is trying to achieve, how he is paying for it is of huge concern to those who equate the Tories with low taxes.
He has gambled that voters will not punish him at the ballot box for breaking his 2019 election pledge not to raise taxes after grabbing an extra £36billion.
A national insurance rise picks the pockets of hard-pressed families and, as employers must also stump up, risks hitting job creation and enterprise just when the economy needs to fire on all cylinders.
Meanwhile, a new raid on shareholders’ profits will punish investment (though mercifully pension pots are to be exempt).
A concern, too, is that social care reform is a mere fig leaf to disguise a huge tax rise chiefly to help clear the backlog of nonCovid healthcare treatments caused by the pandemic. Who would bet against the money being poured into the insatiable, gaping maw of the NHS, and the elderly care crisis never being solved?
To retain voters’ trust, the Government must ensure the cash is diverted to social care – and the wasteful, bureaucratic Health Service is radically reformed.
Of course, Labour has nothing to say beyond witless sniping. Consumed by woke obsessions, Sir Keir Starmer’s rabble hasn’t even got a clear policy on social care.
Indeed, the woolly-brained opportunists are in such a muddle they are threatening to vote against a tax rise for the NHS – once their sacred cow – because Mr Johnson has proposed it.
But just because Labour have vacated the political field, the Tories must not be tempted to steal their political clothes.
By perennially being the party of low taxes and economic competence, they have been a matchless electoral force. That should never be underplayed.