The increase in serious violence is deeply worrying and sadly some people no longer feel as safe as they should. It is our priority to make our streets safer – and we’ve already begun work to do just that.
We have worked with our Police and Crime Commissioner to deliver 450 new officers in Kent by March 2020 and also plan to add a further 147. We have secured funding to help tackle the causes of violent crime. The Home Office provisionally allocated Kent £1,160,000 from its Serious Violence Fund to support more multi-agency preventative work. Working with our local Police and Crime Commissioner we were successful in bidding for £527,573 from the Chancellors Early Intervention Youth Fund to help tackle the causes of crime.
This, alongside the Government’s Serious Violence Strategy and Offensive Weapons Bill, and already marks a major shift in the Government's response to violent crime. The strategy will seek to reduce the supply of dangerous weapons and tackle the violent drugs market in order to reduce violent crime and protect both the public and Police Officers.
We Are Making Our Streets Safer by:
- Hiring 20,000 additional police officers across the UK over the next three years to keep our streets safe.
- Giving the police powers they need to protect the public by making it simpler to use stop and search and take knives off our streets.
- Giving Police Constables the power and resources to offer more of their officers with Tasers. We believe that all trained officers should have the choice to carry a taser in order to protect themselves and the public from serious violence.
- Conducting an urgent review of sentencing to ensure the public are properly protected from the most dangerous criminals, extending the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme so more victims can appeal the sentences offenders receive, and legislating to prevent the automatic release of the most serious violent and sexual offenders at the half way point of their sentence.
- Creating 10,000 extra prison places to hold the additional offenders who will be caught, charged and sentenced. Up to £2.5 billion will be spent on creating modern, efficient prisons to better reform criminals and keep the public safe, while an extra £100 million will aid the crackdown on crime within prisons.
