Herefordshire Police must be freed from Government Bureaucracy

1.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 26th Sep 2008

Sarah Carr and the Liberal Democrats are fighting to free our local Police forces from being buried in red tape and targets from Central government

The Liberal Democrats are announcing bold new plans at their annual party conference in Bournemouth this week (13th-17th September) to free local police forces from the grip of central government bureaucracy and targets. Under Liberal Democrat plans police officers would be freed to spend more time policing communities rather than chasing government targets.

"The police have to be free to police our local communities," said Sarah Carr. "Constant interference and targets from Whitehall and mounds of paperwork do little to catch criminals and deter crime. Police in Herefordshire are far better placed than a government minister in Whitehall to decide what the local priorities are.

"The Liberal Democrat proposals also call for police authorities to be elected by local people, rather than appointed by ministers. That will mean policing priorities are under the control of local people."

Other Liberal Democrat proposals to help cut crime, to be debated at the conference, include appointing 10,000 extra police officers, paid for by scrapping the expensive and bureaucratic National Identity Card scheme.

The Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne's paper, Cutting Crime: Catching Criminals With Better Policing, is available on the Liberal Democrat website:

http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/Cutting%20Crime%20by%20Catching%20Criminals.pdf