Tackling Crime in North West Norfolk

The Liberal Democrats are committed to putting 3,000 more police on the beat across Britain, including dozens of new officers in Norfolk.

For too long the debate about policing and criminal justice policy has been centred around what sounds tough rather than what works to cut crime, with both Labour and the Tories pandering to tabloid newspaper editors and exploiting a politics of fear.

Labour's catastrophic mismanagement of the criminal justice system has led to prisons bursting at the seams, the creation of over 3,600 new criminal offences since 1997, and an unprecedented criminalisation of our children.

The Liberal Democrats have published figures showing where the extra officers, funded by the £575m saving from scrapping the ID card scheme, would be stationed across the UK. The pledge would mean dozens of new officers across Norfolk.

The figures also show that:

Officers in England and Wales cleared up an average of 9 crimes each last year. If the new officers did the same, an estimated extra 25,000 crimes would be solved each year.
Across Norfolk, which would have enough additional funding to put 30 new officers on the beat, over 300 more crimes would be solved each year.

Commenting, North West Norfolk Parliamentary Spokesperson William Summers said:

"Both Labour and the Tories have talked tough but haven't produced results. I want to see real action on crime and anti social behaviour in King's Lynn, Hunstanton and elsewhere across West Norfolk."

"The Liberal Democrats are the only party who wants to catch more criminals by putting more police on the street."

As well as putting more police officers on the beat the Liberal Democrats are committed to reform of the police service and to evidence-based justice. If we really want to tackle crime we must introduce measures that are proven to reduce re-offending such as community justice panels, restorative justice and rigorous community punishments.