Neighbourhood Watch (Hansard, 13 January 1994)

§ 12. Mr. Winnick
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on neighbourhood watch schemes being involved in street patrolling.

§ Mr. Howard
A number of neighbourhood watch schemes already patrol as part of their voluntary crime prevention activities. To encourage such local initiatives, I have asked for a code of practice to be drawn up in consultation with the police.

§ Mr. Winnick
Does not the Home Secretary realise how ridiculous and dangerous it is to advise neighbourhood watch schemes to get involved in street patrols? Has not he been told that the police consider it to be very dangerous? Why does not he admit that what he wants is for residents increasingly to use private guards, which is another form of privatisation of the police service?

§ Mr. Howard
No. The hon. Gentleman is talking nonsense. If anyone really wanted to see the Labour party's attitude towards such matters he should have observed the manifest derision of Opposition Members when I recounted to the House on Tuesday the work being done by Town Watch in Sandwich, patrolling the streets to reduce crime in the area and to escort elderly citizens who want to be taken out at night to visit their friends and neighbours. I went out with Sandwich Town Watch on Sunday night, and I was greatly impressed by what I saw. Such work should receive a tribute from the Labour party, not the derision that we saw on Tuesday. [Interruption.]

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The House must settle down. There are far too many noisy conversations going on. [Interruption.] Order. The House must settle down now.

§ Mr. Paice
Is not it true that people who become involved in the patrolling schemes alongside neighbour-hood watch understand clearly that the idea of people 327 patrolling and keeping watch is a major deterrent to those involved in much of the petty crime that besets our housing estates? Is that not the real reason why my constituents in Cottenham, and people in many other places, have become involved in such schemes? They are a means of helping to keep down crime, especially in rural areas. Do they not represent a sensible way forward, alongside the special constable scheme, which is also being widely welcomed in my constituency?

§ Mr. Howard
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend but such schemes are of use not only in rural areas. I have told the House of my experiences in Sandwich on Sunday night; last Thursday night I patrolled in a similar way with a group of concerned citizens in Washington DC. They said to me, "People behave differently if they know that they are being watched." [Laughter.] That is the principle behind neighbourhood watch.—[interruption.]

§ Madam Speaker
Order.

§ Mr. Howard
rose—[Interruption.]

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The House must come to order now.

§ Mr. Howard
It is astonishing how reluctant the Labour party is to take seriously the safety of people on our streets and in their houses, and the extent to which the active citizen can make a contribution towards achieving those objectives.

§ Mr. Michael
I assure the Home Secretary that he is being watched. Does he not accept that patrolling our streets is part of the job of a constable, which demands training and expertise?
Our derision is not for those good citizens who, out of fear and frustration, patrol the streets, but for the Home Secretary who fails to support the police. He is putting at risk those who undertake such patrols, and other citizens, too. Why has a Home Secretary from a party that promised 1,000 extra police this year delivered a cut of 224 instead? We hear constant promises of support for the police, but the citizens to whom the question refers would be in bed at night if the Home Secretary would only deliver that support.

§ Mr. Howard
We have fully discharged our manifesto promise to increase police numbers. If I have failed to support the police, why did the chairman of the Police Federation say about my speech in Blackpool, My message to the Home Secretary is that what you have proposed is first-class. It will help tremendously in the fight against crime"? The people who patrol the streets of Sandwich do so not out of fear and frustration but out of a public-spirited concern for their community that the Labour party will never understand.