Shabana Mahmood will set out her overhaul of policing today, aiming to tackle “unpunished” everyday crime and get officers from their desks to the streets.
The home secretary is expected to make a statement to MPs this afternoon on her proposals, including the previously announced creation of a new National Police Service (NPS) to tackle major crimes, and cutting the number of police forces.
She is also set to pledge to cut “red tape” and “unnecessary admin” that prevent officers from spending more time on the beat, and to change how staffing levels are funded.
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Under the proposals, police forces will also be required to respond to emergency calls in urban areas within 15 minutes, and within 20 minutes in rural areas.
While most forces have targets to respond in this time, the Home Office said there is currently no way to hold them to this standard.
“People are reporting crimes and then waiting hours or even days for a response,” Ms Mahmood said in a statement. “By the time the police arrive, the perpetrators and witnesses are long gone.”
“I will restore neighbourhood policing and scale up patrols in communities to catch criminals and cut crime,” she added.
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Other announcements over the weekend included a £7m investment in tackling shoplifting, including £5m for Operational Opal – a national intelligence sharing unit targeting shoplifting gangs.
Policing minister Sarah Jones said that “for too long, organised crime gangs have taken advantage of defenceless retailers, faced no consequences of their cruel actions and known that police forces may not always attend in time to catch them”.
“My message to them is simple,” she said. “There is nowhere to hide now.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp agreed that people “want to see stronger neighbourhood policing and more bobbies on the beat”.
However, he said that “it’s hard to take Labour’s promises seriously when they have stripped more than 1,300 officers from the front line in our communities, and shoplifting has risen to record levels on their watch”.
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Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson added that “promises by press release are all well and good, but the government must deliver”.
“Labour already promised the public 13,000 more police officers, but instead officer numbers have fallen,” he said.
“By March this year, we had 4,000 fewer officers than the year before. That’s simply not good enough.
“If the government is serious about restoring neighbourhood policing, it needs to step up, get this right, and get more officers back onto our streets.”
