Brian Paddick's London policing policies

When Brian Paddick speaks about policing you should listen up as his experience is rarely bettered.

Ealing specifically and many other places in London had the worst riots for a generation last summer. A vote for Brian Paddick and the Liberal Democrats this May will send a powerful message that Londoners have had enough of high levels of crime and poor community relations with the police.

It’s time for the police and public to stand side-by-side together against the criminals.

As Mayor, Brian Paddick will also take up the office of Police and Crime Commissioner for London, instead of delegating it to a deputy, and will personally lead a new era of tough and responsive policing in London. Check out some of these great policies which would reduce crime and help us feel safer especially at night:

• More bobbies on the beat - We will guarantee 33,500 police in the Met by protecting local neighbourhood teams from the current Mayor’s cuts.
• Safer travel - We will allow night buses to stop on request closer to passengers’ final destinations, rather than at fixed bus stops.
• Tough payback sentences - Those convicted of criminal offences will be made to work in the community to repay their debt to society while gaining new skills. Re-offending can be halved through payback sentencing.
• Survivors of rape - will be better supported and taken seriously. Guaranteed funding for rape crisis centres and retraining of police to raise awareness.
• Better stop and search - We will stop police targeting innocent people and accurately target the power on criminals. Stopping people just because they are from minority ethnic communities destroys trust and wastes time that could be better spent targeting real criminals.
• Independent public commissioner for standards - We will create a policing ombudsman for London to enforce tough and clear standards of conduct over behaviours that have brought the police into disrepute, such as abusing stop & search, racist attitudes and corrupt relations with the media.
• Local policing - We will give each neighbourhood its own plan for policing and how officers are deployed, based on ward surveys and involving local people and local businesses in decisions over policing priorities in their areas.

All in all, Brian Paddick's plans will get the police to focus their attention on reducing crime and building up better relations with our communities. Tough but effective payback sentences will reduce the rate of re-offending, which will in turn reduce the number of future victims of crime.

See this great article from Dave Hill at the Guardian about Brian launching his campaign in the boxing ring!

Of all the Mayoral candidates he is the ONLY one that knows the difference between the gimmicks used by other political parties. His time in the Met at a senior level shows he has the judgement needed to sort the Met out and make it an organisation that we can trust.