18 February 2023 , 22:30
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Labour is today pledging to crack down on anti-social behaviour as new figures show community sentences plummeting 62% under the Tories.
According to the Ministry of Justice, only 71,138 community sentences were handed out in 2021 - down from 189,333 in 2010.
Labour say magistrates are concerned the work they order is not being done and 16 million hours have been lost since 2014.
If offenders had been paid the minimum wage jobs avoided would tot up to £150 million.
Now Labour promises a raft of new community punishments if Keir Starmer becomes PM including introducing Respect Orders targeting repeat offenders.
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That will create a new criminal offence allowing police to arrest persistent troublemakers and courts to take speedy enforcement action.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror today, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledges more bobbies on the beat with 13,000 extra neighbourhood police.
She said: “Catherine Cawood from Happy Valley may be a fictional character.
“But I’ve met many neighbourhood police who know their community so well it helps them catch criminals and prevent antisocial behaviour. We need more of them.”
Yvette Cooper referenced Happy Valley's Catherine Cawood, played by Sarah Lancashire (BBC/Lookout Point/Matt Squire)Community and Victim Payback Boards will be set up in which victims and community leaders would get a voice on appropriate punishments, recommend work which needs carrying out locally, and ensure it gets done.
Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said: “Under the Conservatives, anti-social thugs are left to riot without facing any consequence.
“No wonder so many victims feel frustrated and powerless as they watch their neighbourhoods spiral downwards into crime.”
Fly-tippers will be forced to join new clean-up squads to clear away their own mess under Fixed Penalty Cleaning Notices managed by local authorities.
Court imposed Parenting Orders will be extended to make mums and dads attend classes on how to be good parents if their children repeatedly misbehave.
More than 1.1 million incidents of anti-social behaviour were recorded by the police last year - or 3,000 a day.
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Former Labour PM Tony Blair said: “I welcome so strongly this initiative.
“Zero tolerance is the right approach. Tolerate anti-social behaviour and you create an environment in which more serious crime flourishes.”
Labour won't stand for this - we'll get bobbies back on the beat
"Vandalism and damage in town centres has gone up by a shocking 30% in a year" (PA)
by Yvette Cooper, shadow Home Secretary
Antisocial behaviour makes people’s lives a misery. For the older woman who no longer shops in town because vandalism and aggressive street drinkers make her feel unsafe. For the shift worker forced to deal with noisy neighbours from hell day and night. Or the schoolchild worried about walking past the drug dealers on the corner.
Last year, the police recorded 3,000 incidents of antisocial behaviour every single day. In many places it’s getting worse. Vandalism and damage in town centres has gone up by a shocking 30% in a year – hitting local businesses and dragging communities down.
For the last 13 years, the Conservatives have turned their backs on communities struggling with antisocial behaviour and they’ve made the problem much worse. It’s a disgrace.
They have decimated neighbourhood policing. Nine out of ten people say they rarely see a police officer on patrol, 6,000 police officers and 8,500 PCSOs have been cut since 2015.
The Tories also cut enforcement powers when they abolished all the antisocial behaviour programmes we had under the last Labour Government and replaced them with much weaker policies instead. But one police officer told me he has given up using some of the Tory powers altogether because they are so weak, and vandals and thugs just ignore them.
Labour won't stand for this. We’ve set out a new AntiSocial Behaviour Action Plan.
First we’ll get bobbies back on the beat – our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs and new town centre patrols.
Catherine Cawood from Happy Valley may be a fictional character. But I’ve met many neighbourhood police who know their community so well it helps them catch criminals and prevent antisocial behaviour. We need more of them
Second we’ll introduce stronger enforcement powers with new Respect Orders to crack down on repeat adult offenders who ignore all the warnings from the police and courts. Nearly a quarter of criminal damage and arson offenders reoffend. This mindless, dangerous vandalism and intimidation has to stop.
Third we’ll set up new prevention teams linked up to drug and alcohol treatment, CCTV and safety measures and new youth mentors working with young people to stop them getting drawn into gangs.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime – that’s what Labour said 30 years ago. It was right then and it’s right now. The Tories are letting us down. Only Labour is the party of law and order now.