Copyright walesonline
The Conservatives have pledged to prevent 35,000 crimes by increasing police presence in violent "hot spots" should they regain power. This commitment was made as the party unveiled more details of its "Policing Plan", which includes proposals to recruit an additional 10,000 police officers and triple the use of stop-and-search powers, as outlined at this month's party conference. The Tories' strategy would also grant the home secretary greater authority to establish "binding operational priorities" for police forces, directing their focus towards "real crime". This would supersede the existing system where the home secretary can only intervene if a force is deemed to be "failing", a standard the Conservatives deem "just not good enough". Shadow home secretary Chris Philp stated: "Every day, victims are told there's nothing police can do while criminals walk free. "That failure corrodes public trust and weakens the rule of law. "Keir Starmer does not have the backbone to take the difficult decisions Britain needs. That has to change. "Our plan will end the culture of excuses." The Conservative's proposal also involves deploying extra officers to the 2,000 neighbourhoods most affected by violent crime, where they will be permitted to stop and search anyone, even without suspicion. At present, such powers can only be exercised in a specified area for a 24-hour period if a senior officer believes individuals there may be carrying weapons or that serious violence could occur. Under the proposed plan, existing thresholds for stop-and-search powers in other areas would be reduced. This comes after a week of mixed crime statistics. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that homicides had dropped to their lowest recorded level in the year leading up to June 2025, while knife crime saw a decrease of 5% compared to the previous year. However, other types of police-recorded offences saw an increase, with shoplifting rising by 13% year on year to 529,994 – just shy of the recent all-time high – and theft from the person increasing by 5%. In total, police forces recorded 6.6 million crimes in England and Wales in the year to June, a decrease of 1.5% from 6.7 million in the preceding 12 months. Yet, separate data from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests that individuals aged 16 and over experienced 9.3 million incidents of crime in the year to June 2025, a slight increase from 9.2 million in the previous 12 months. The primary driver of this increase was a 14% rise in fraud, accounting for an estimated 4.1 million incidents, including 2.5 million incidents of bank and credit account fraud. Labour has pledged to recruit an additional 13,000 neighbourhood policing officers by 2029, with 3,000 extra recruits expected to be in post by spring next year to combat crime. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson stated: "Policing is at a crisis point. "The former Conservative government destroyed neighbourhood policing and left our communities to pay the price. This Labour government has done too little to change course."
