Responding to the publication today of Streets Ahead, the joint inspectorate report on the Street Crime Initiative, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said:
"The Street Crime Initiative is an outstanding success. The results speak for themselves - robbery cut by 17 per cent in the ten street crime areas, meaning 17,000 fewer victims. These results are a real credit to the police forces who worked so hard.
"Robbery is a serious crime which traumatises victims and makes people feel unsafe in their own neighbourhoods. The Government is determined to tackle it, and through the Street Crime Initiative is cutting it significantly, making our communities safer places to live and work.
We are making progress on cutting crime right across the board - including diverting young people from crime, targeting police activity on robbery hotspots, overhauling the criminal justice system to ensure better care of victims and witnesses, increasing drug treatment, and putting a record number of police officers (132,268) on our streets supported by 1,400 Community Support Officers.
"The report rightly points out that some parts of the system don't work as well as they should. That is exactly why we started the Street Crime Initiative - to look at new ways of working, to bridge gaps and make parts of the system work together better. Its success shows that that effective partnership working can make a real difference.
"The Street Crime Initiative is not a one-off - the Government's drive to tackle crime continues unabated and we look forward to building on the success of the Initiative to cut crime even further."
Mr Blunkett pointed to the following achievements and on-going work:
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17 per cent reduction in robbery across the ten street crime police forces, meaning thousands of fewer victims.
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Record numbers of police on our streets - 132,268 - backed by 1,400 Community Support Officers.
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Video identification kit in all ten forces which dramatically speeds up the parade process and is less stressful for victims or witnesses.
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Action on stolen mobiles. Tough punishments of up to five years in jail for mobile 'phone reprogrammers. A database of lost and stolen 'phones to make any stolen phone useless on any network.
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£4 million invested during the first year of the Street Crime Initiative in improving the facilities available for witnesses attending the designated Street Crime Courts, to ensure they are able to give evidence without the fear of intimidation.
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Total spending on tackling drugs is to rise from £1.2 billion this year to nearly £1.5 billion by 2005. Spending on treatment alone (including prisons) to rise to £573 million by 2005
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The Department for Education and Skills' £342 million Behaviour Improvement Programme in place in 34 Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in street crime areas and a further 27 LEAs encouraging innovative action in tackling poor behaviour and attendance.
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Regular local and national truancy sweeps, conducted throughout the Street Crime Initiative, sweeping hundreds of truants off the streets and back into schools.
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100 police officers working in schools under the Safer Schools Partnerships to help identify and work with young people who are at high risk of victimisation, offending and social exclusion.
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Last summer more than 91,000 youngsters took part in positive activities ranging from sports to film production, leading to an overall reduction in crime of 5.2 per cent in the street crime areas, with the scheme now being extended to cover all holiday periods.
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National roll-out of a pre-charge advice scheme which in pilots has led to more convictions and a major drop in discontinuances, as the Crown Prosecution Service has brought the benefit of its legal expertise to bear earlier in the process.
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An extension of the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme making it available to courts in 80 per cent of England and Wales.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
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The Street Crime Initiative was announced on 17 March 2002 by the Home Secretary (Home Office press notice 074/02). The Prime Minister chaired the first meeting of the cross-Government action group the following day.
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The ten forces involved in the initiative are: Avon and Somerset, Thames Valley, Metropolitan Police Service, Nottingham, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police. In London, the British Transport Police in London are also involved.
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In October, the Government published results from the first six months of the initiative (available on www.crimereduction.gov.uk/streetcrime). These showed robbery had fallen 25 per cent when comparing September with March and a 10 per cent fall between April and September 2002 compared to the same six month period the year before.
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The Street Crime Initiative is an ongoing initiative with the long-term aim to reduce robbery by 14 per cent by 2005 compared to1999.
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Forty two Local Criminal Justice Boards, made up of chief officers from police, probation, courts, the CPS, youth offending teams and prisons were established across England and Wales in April 2003. The Boards improve co-operation between criminal justice agencies on the ground, joining-up at a local level to bring victims and local communities to the centre of the process. Each Local Criminal Justice Board has drawn up an action plan for their area setting out how they will bring more offenders to justice by identifying local priorities and strategies to tackle the crimes and offenders which matter to their communities.
SUPPORTIVE QUOTES:
Lord Falconer, Constitutional Affairs Secretary, said:
"The Street Crime Initiative has made great strides in driving crime off the nation's streets to make them safer for ordinary decent people.
"This has been made possible by the tireless dedication and work of the criminal justice agencies. We must now take these lessons forward so that we are able to provide a radically improved service to victims, witnesses and jurors as they come into contact with the Criminal Justice System."
Ivan Lewis, Education Minister, said:
"Tackling truancy and bad behaviour in schools is playing a key part in the Street Crime Initiative, breaking their links with anti-social behaviour and criminality in the community, and improving levels of attainment for all pupils.
"We are now seeing impressive results in local education authorities which are receiving support under the Behaviour Improvement Programme, and I have no doubt that its recent expansion will deliver equally impressive results in the authorities now joining the scheme."
Lord Goldsmith, Attorney General, said:
"This report makes clear the value of Crown Prosecution Service charging suspects and making early legal advice available to the police. In pilots, these arrangements have increased conviction rates by 15 per cent and reduced discontinuances by 59 per cent. Although there was limited take-up of the voluntary pre-charge advice scheme during the Street Crime Initiative, the Criminal Justice Bill - which makes the arrangements permanent and mandatory - will ensure these benefits are replicated throughout the country.
"The report also commends the work done by the CPS on victim and witness care. These special arrangements for ensuring victims and witnesses were supported throughout the criminal justice process made a big difference to people's experience of the system. They built on the role the CPS already has as the victim's champion. As the report says, giving one agency responsibility for victims and witnesses could lead to significant improvements, both in efficiency - for example, by ensuring witnesses attend for court hearings - and in public confidence."
Sir David Calvert-Smith QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, said:
"I welcome the opportunity that the Street Crime Initiative has given us to join with our partners in the criminal justice system to tackle an issue that really matters to the public. The results have been impressive. The police have successfully driven down the number of street crime offences and the CPS, together with the police, has brought many more of these offenders to justice in the courts. Fear of street crime is reducing and public confidence is being won back.
"Valuable lessons from the Street Crime Initiative need now to be embedded as part of wider reforms to follow enactment of the Criminal Justice Bill.
"Where the CPS has provided pre-charge advice to police it has worked to everyone's advantage. Consequently, in advance of the Bill becoming law, we are accelerating the introduction of new charging arrangements with the police. Shadow charging schemes in England and Wales are being put in place now as part of a policy of 'CPS in early, police stay late'. CPS lawyers will help police at the outset of a case to ensure the evidential burden is met and to make the right charging decision first time. Police will actively support the CPS in managing the case through to conclusion. What this amounts to is a radical transformation of our ability to meet the challenge of crime and disorder head on."
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