Labour’s targets for fighting crime are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard

Tim Montgomerie flags up how the targets culture is distorting policing priorities with arresting a child for stealing a chocolate bar treated by the police as being as important as arresting a murderer. There’s little doubt that the police are going for the low hanging fruit when it comes to meeting targets. Indeed, the only way to really measure how the police are serving the public is to make them fully accountable. If police chiefs had to stand for election and re-election it would force them to concentrate on the crimes that most bother the public.