Police plan rooted in common sense

THIS IS HOW I SEE IT

- JJ Anisiobi

POLICING in Britain has suffered from the same flaw that plagues so many public services: scarce resources spread thinly in the name of fairness, while accepting failure everywhere.

That’s why Tory plans for “hotspot policing” acknowledge a truth crime is not evenly distributed, and pretending otherwise costs lives.

Anyone who lives in or works in our cities knows this instinctively. A handful of streets, estates and neighbourhoods are blighted by violence, robbery and antisocial behaviour, while vast swathes of the country experience comparatively little serious crime. In London, just 4% of neighbourhoods account for more than a quarter of all knife crime.