Crime

The fight against crime is central to Nick’s work as an MP and he meets regularly with local police commanders to relay the concerns of his constituents. As the Shadow Minister for Police Reform (until July 2007), Nick wrote the paper 'Policing for the People', which argued for a rise in the accountability of the police force, along with the necessity to reduce the amount of bureaucracy plaguing officers today.

Nick is now serving in the Coalition Government as Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice and will be setting out radical new proposals for reform of the police and criminal justice system.

Nick believes that too many people, especially those living in some of our more isolated rural communities, live in the fear of being a victim of crime.

The key to preventing crime and providing reassurance to our local communities is a police presence on the streets. Officers are detained in police stations filling out paperwork and doing routine administrative tasks when they should be fighting crime. Only 17 per cent of a police officer’s time is spent on patrol. Arresting a suspect keeps officers off the beat for an average of 3½ hours.

Nick has often highlighted the valuable work of PCSOs and community wardens – welcoming their introduction in many villages across Sussex – as a way to increase the uniformed presence on our streets and to provide reassurance to our communities.

He has also called for a greater extension of the police “family”, including PCSOs and neighbourhood wardens, to help support the work of police officers in tackling the growing challenge of anti-social behaviour, which continues to blight so many of our rural communities.

Here you can read Nick's news releases, speeches and articles on crime.

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