Phone thefts fuel robberies' rise

[hyperD]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5195910.stm

A rise in young people carrying mobile phones and MP3 players is being blamed for street robberies and muggings jumping by 8% last year.
The latest crime figures include a 10% rise in gunpoint robberies.

But the government says the statistics show both violent crime and crime overall has remained "stable".

So, nothing to do with the lack of police resources then?

I went to New York over 10 years ago and to be honest, it was scary. Times Square was seedy and around Little Venice/SOHO it was scary to walk around at night. I went there again a few weeks ago and didn't think twice about walking around at night. There were police everywhere and no gangs of septic chavs, etc

Rudolph Giuliani reduced crime by attacking petty crime first: i.e. rather than finger wag those that jumped the metro turnstiles, he threw them in jail.

He adopted an aggressive enforcement-deterrent strategy based on James Q. Wilson's Broken Windows theory. This involved crackdowns on relatively minor offenses such as jaywalking, turnstile jumping, and aggressive "squeegeemen", on the principle that this would send a message that order would be maintained, and that the city would be "cleaned up".

These sorts of method should be applied here to reduce the increase in local "street" crime.

From personal experience, in a small village whoise "bobby on the beat" was snatched due to more form filling required, I've made 2 claims on insurance in the past 2 months (stolen bike and watch). Speaking to shop owners and the police, street crime has risen exponentially, mainly due to the appearance of CCTV which is forcing primarily drug addicts and "petty" thieves out to the suburbs that do not have CCTV.

[Bitbucket]

It wasnt Guliano that reduced crime it was the Chief of police , Kelly that did most of the work , zero tollerance stuff that Brits should be following

[Francko]

It wasnt Guliano that reduced crime it was the Chief of police , Kelly that did most of the work , zero tollerance stuff that Brits should be following

Now we should talk about human rights and respect for cultural diversity.

[hyperD]

We can debate semantics, but it was Giuliani's policies, direction and partnering with NYPD Commissioner, Bill Bratton (plus the fact that they financed another 7,000 officers) that lead to the reduction in crime.

Agreed, exactly something that the UK should follow.