11 February 2005
Council leaders have called for police reforms to take more account of local needs and priorities.
In its response to the Home Office's police reform white paper, the Local Government Association said the government was moving in the right direction but needed to ensure police respond to the specific problems of individual areas.
'We're very happy because we think [the paper] emphasises the importance of communities,' LGA policy director John Ransford told Public Finance. 'We'd like to see a move from national targets to a local focus. The emphasis on neighbourhood policy should include an emphasis on general community involvement.'
Ransford added that the biggest turnaround in policing in recent years was seen in New York under the stewardship of Mayor Rudy Giuliani who delivered the kind of reforms the LGA is calling for and delegated policing powers down to the neighbourhood level.
The white paper, published last November, sets out plans to create neighbourhood policing teams, which will use community-based intelligence to tackle local crime.
PFfeb2005
