Dale Bassett is New Media Politics Executive for Reform.
Centralised and technocratic – the shift to “Robocop justice” occurring in Britain today is the consequence of a substantial change in people’s response to crime. Citizens have become “passive bystanders”, happy to abdicate personal responsibility for criminal justice in favour of an ever-increasing role for monolithic institutions, ill-equipped to deal efficiently with crime.
Reform’s new report, published today, finds that the public who demand that “something must be done” about growing violent crime and anti-social behaviour are uninformed about crime and unlikely to participate in maintaining justice. People want to be able to blame the system, and in an attempt to retain control and appear to be tackling the problem, politicians are only too happy to help – we’ve reached the ridiculous situation where the Home Secretary seems to take personal responsibility for every assault that happens on our streets. The resulting centralisation and politicisation of the criminal justice system has made Britain the most expensive country to police in the world, with spending on law and order increasing by nearly 40% in real terms from 1997/8 to 2006/7.
Our report suggests two keys to rectifying this and improving the efficiency of our criminal justice system: decentralisation and information.
With mishaps such as the ongoing lost data scandals demonstrating the failure of the creaking centralised state, politicians from all parties are beginning to realise that a local, decentralised agenda is often the best approach in many areas of public policy. But as ever, there seems to be more lip-service than action. The so-called “colouring book” approach – with detailed targets and parameters dictated from the centre and only minimal local autonomy allowed – will mitigate the impact of decentralisation in the criminal justice system. Effective policing needs different approaches in different local areas – and local commanders know what works. Giving local police forces the freedom to focus on low-level crime and anti-social behaviour is the way to make a real difference to crime on our streets.
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