wisconsin troops home

Gordon Brown today urged police across England and Wales to offer to walk the last mile home with people who feel unsafe after they visit the cashpoint.

He floated the idea, pioneered by the Wanstead neighbourhood police team in east London, when he delivered his first major speech about crime at Chelsea FC’s conference centre today.

While Tony Blair faced ridicule for threatening to march young thugs to the cashpoint to pay their fines, Brown was criticised for assuming that the police have the time to escort people home from the bank.

In his wide-ranging speech, the prime minister defended the government’s civil liberties record over the use of CCTV cameras and the decision not to immediately delete the profiles of 850,000 innocent individuals from the DNA database.

He confirmed that the government is to overhaul its strategy to tackle organised crime gangs, including making it easier to seize their property by introducing legislation shifting the burden of proof so that their houses, yachts and cars can be seized immediately by extending the powers that already covers their cash.

Brown defended the record of the much-criticised Serious and Organised Crime Agency, saying it was here to stay.

He also disclosed that a policing white paper is to be published in the autumn to cover police accountability. This will include recent lessons from the G20 protests and will take in the conclusions of the official review by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary of police tactics during those protests and those at the Kingsnorth power station climate camp, in Kent, last summer.

The prime minister said the autumn white paper would look again at the thorny issue of police accountability at a local level – plans for elections to police authorities were recently shelved – to guarantee proper redress if the policing pledge is not met within a specific neighbourhood.

Brown acknowledged that the recession would also bring an upward pressure on burglary and robbery. He said a new programme would be launched this summer, backed by additional funding, to all the different agencies involved in tackling burglary and robbery.

In a speech that touched on nearly every issue on crime and disorder from parenting to sentencing, Brown said that it was easy to think CCTV is “excessive” if you never take the rowdy night bus home, or live in a gated community, or can always afford a licensed cab. He added: “The public should be able to identify streets where they don’t feel safe and get their local force or council to take action.”

The Conservative crime spokesman, James Brokenshire, said: “It is absurd that Gordon Brown thinks that police have time to escort people back from the bank. Between piles of paperwork and trying to fight crime, it’s troubling to think the government view this as achievable for police officers across the country.”