Labour came to power promising to be “tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime”.  In reality, they have “talked tough” and delivered little.  The top-down approach to fighting crime has failed, and we want to try a new approach.

We will cut bureaucracy and free up police officers’ time so they can concentrate on doing their jobs, not filling in forms.   This will mean more police out on our streets.  At the same time, we will put ‘community’ back at the heart of policing, and create a system where the police are able to build strong bonds with the public that they serve.

The Conservatives’ crime proposals include;

• Scrapping stop and search forms and cutting paperwork to allow police to spend more time fighting crime
• Strengthening stop and search powers so that police officers are able to respond decisively to serious incidents
• Introducing directly-elected police commissioners to put the police under local accountability
• Requiring all police forces to publish crime maps and hold regular beat meetings, to further enable local communities to hold their police force to account
• Increasing prison capacity by 5,000 places above Labour’s plans, to ease the problem of overcrowding and enabling us to scrap Labour’s dangerous policy of early release

Under a Conservative government, crime and the causes of crime will truly be dealt with in a unified way.  We recognise that we cannot remove the symptoms of social breakdown without treating the causes.

I have a good relationship with local police officers and think they do an amazing job.  But too often, like so many other public servants, their hands are tied by endless paperwork and form-filling under this government.   If elected as Warwick and Leamington’s next Member of Parliament, I will do everything I can in the constituency to strengthen the links between our communities and the police – and everything I can in Parliament to bring about the changes we need to enable us to tackle crime more effectively.