How police can take back control of Britain’s streets

Boris Johnson’s pledge to fund an extra 20,000 police officers was a serious sign of intent, a game-changing moment for policing and a huge boost for law and order on Britain’s streets. But how can these new officers quickly reverse the spike in knife and violent crime that has plagued Britain?

There are six pressing challenges that the new Home Secretary Priti Patel needs to address if she is to succeed in her strategy to crack down on crime: increasing crime levels, greater demands and reduced budgets for police; decline in neighbourhood officers; new national security threats; a disempowered police workforce and a policing model outpaced by technology.

It is clear that neighbourhood policing is where the vast bulk of the new resources need to be focused. People are worried about levels of crime on their streets and about a general decline in law and order. Yet cutbacks have resulted in police reverting to a reactive ‘emergency response’ based model.