11 August 2005

Labour's feeble response to crime

Labour's pledge to add 250 community constables over two years is a feeble response to the hard challenges facing policing, says National's Police spokesman, Tony Ryall.

"The public knows this is a drop in the bucket compared with what's needed. It's another election-year gesture. It barely keeps up with population growth.

"This is a feeble response to the hard challenges of policing: drugs, violence and 111 chaos.

"National's law and order plan will deal with those priority areas. We pledge significantly more frontline police. We will abolish parole for repeat and violent offenders. And we will DNA test everyone arrested.

"Labour's spin machine cannot hide the fact that confidence in the police is at an all-time low.

"Labour have a Prime Minister who will dump on police to try to divert criticism of herself. They have a Police Minister whose bumbling incompetence defies belief.

"Get rid of these two and it will be much easier to recruit police.

"Under Labour, you are much less safe: the chances of being bashed are higher than ever. Violent crime is up 14%, grievous assaults up more than 35%.

"And at the same time, Labour has turned the police into revenue gatherers. Speeding tickets issued by police have trebled over five years," Mr Ryall says.

ENDS

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