Better reporting needed to eradicate FGM in London
Posted by GLA Conservatives in News
– Mayor challenged to act after ‘appalling’ number of cases in capital
Social workers, medical professionals and teachers need to help identify young girls at risk of FGM after an ‘appalling’ number of the crimes were reported in London.
Assembly Member Andrew Boff will be challenging Boris Johnson to take decisive action after it was reported that London accounted for more than half the number of FGM cases nationwide.
Between July and September last year, 758 new incidents were reported to the Metropolitan Police, compared to 1,385 nationwide.
Sound cannon could be the water cannon alternative London needs
The Home Secretary has made the wrong decision in not allowing the Metropolitan Police the use of water cannon. Not only are water cannon a better alternative to rubber bullets, they act as a powerful visual deterrent to violence.
Another crowd control alternative is now required and I suggest the Met adopt Sound Cannon. They are low cost, safe, extremely mobile, and would be very effective at dispersing a riot or violent demonstrations. Though I hope another riot never happens we must be prepared to protect Londoners against all eventualities.
Gunfire detectors in ‘soft targets’ could slash armed response times and save lives
National pilot of kit in 50 undisclosed, high-footfall national sites would cost less than 1pc of annual anti-terror budget
‘Soft’ terror targets such as hospitals, museums, train stations and shopping malls should be kitted out with gunfire alarms, according to GLA Conservative Roger Evans.
Currently trialled in the US, the smoke alarm sized detectors use heat and sound to detect gunfire, automatically alert police, and enable armed officers to track and follow gunmen within a building.¹
Estimated to cost between £13k and £65k², depending on building size and layout, the kit could cut response times and save lives in a shooting incident.
Currently, the Met police expects armed officers to respond to incidents in about 12 minutes, whilst armed response took 14 minutes to arrive during the 2013 Woolwich terrorist attack.³
30k criminals let off with cautions including robbers, drug traffickers and arsonists
· Hundreds of crooks avoid court on multiple occasions
· ‘Written explanation of decisions will answer to victims’
London: 29,560 cautions were handed out to criminals by the Met, the UK’s biggest police force, in 2013/14¹.
Drunk fines fall by a third despite hospital admissions rising
“Random police visits to A&Es on trouble nights targeting repeat drunks with fines”
London: The number of fines handed out to London’s drunks are drastically falling, despite hospital admissions rising year on year.
The new figures come as part of the next phase of GLA Conservative Tony Arbour’s campaign* to cut the cost of binge drinking.
New FOI figures for the Capital show:
· Drunk fines dropping by a third between 2005 and 2013 (3,005 penalties handed out in 2005 compared to 2,063 fines in 2013)¹
· Hospital admissions nearly doubling (74,457 in 2004/5² compared to 132,310 in 2012/13³)
Drunk people who repeatedly abuse A&E services are costing £52m every year.4
GLA Conservative Tony Arbour is urging police to visit A&Es randomly on trouble nights and target repeat drunks with fines.
Almost half of all crimes 'ignored' by police
- 40% of burglaries, 23% of robberies and 76% of car thefts not investigated by UK’s biggest force
- “If you are a thief, you can rest assured that over three quarters of your crimes, reported by victims, will be ignored by police”
Almost half (45%) of all crimes are not investigated by the Met – the UK’s biggest police force – according to the 2012/13 figures uncovered by GLA Conservatives Assembly Member Roger Evans.
The data shows a quarter (23%) of robberies and 40% of burglaries are ‘screened out’ by the Met, as well as 76% of car thefts and 81% of cycle thefts.
Roger is now calling for victims of crime to be allowed the right to appeal to their local safer neighbourhood boards – groups of local volunteers working with local police which come into existence from 2014 – if the police decide not to investigate their crime.
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29K criminals escape with a caution including robbers, rapists and drug traffickers- And that’s just in London
28,998 cautions were handed to criminals in private by the Met (the UK’s biggest police force) in 2012/13 – a quarter* of all solved crimes in London. Almost 500 robbers, rapists and drug traffickers escaped justice.
According to Met figures exclusively obtained by London Assembly Member Tony Arbour;
· 5,843 criminals have been let off by the police for violent attacks with injury
· 180 cautioned for GBH/wounding
· 131 robbers have avoided punishment with a caution
· 318 offenders have escaped justice for drug trafficking
· 165 cautions have been handed out for sexual offences
· 5 rapists were handed a caution
Roger Evans on ANPR Camera's in London
Roger Evans: "As I have discussed in the past I think Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology has great promise and yesterdays Metropolitan Police action was more proof of that"
James Cleverly says the Metropolitan Police need New York style Predictive Crime Mapping
At the Police and Crime Plenary, Assembly Member James Cleverly will call on Boris Johnson to radically improve the Met’s intelligence system and introduce predictive crime mapping* in London.
Commenting, James Cleverly AM said,
“Money needs to be targeted at systems that can achieve more for less. Predictive crime mapping is a computer programme which allows police to turn up at an event and prevent a crime before it even happens. It’s welcomed by civil liberties groups as a successful, non-intrusive form of intelligence. And it will mean that we are one step ahead of criminals.
“There is a lot of evidence from the USA that, where predictive crime mapping has been used, crime can be significantly cut. These kinds of results cannot be ignored; so I am calling on the Mayor to test out this system in London.”
- More than 5,000 ppl signed the petition calling fr changes to the current CR2 proposals @KemiBadenoch @WimbledonNews https://t.co/JraHnbumBd
- .@KemiBadenoch receives a petition from @WimbledonNews and local residents opposing Crossrail 2 proposals https://t.co/NxaZBxwhrI
- .@SteveO_Connell says TfL's financial commitment 'is a sign that this plan is being taken seriously' https://t.co/EQf2Sfzlmb
