Home Secretary Priti Patel ‘wants criminals to be terrified’ as she vows to return to zero-tolerance policing
PRITI Patel has called for a return to zero-tolerance policing so criminals "feel terror" on the streets.
The new Home Secretary believes the Tories are the party of "law and order" and has made it her mission to tackle the soaring crime in the country.
"I’ve always felt the Conservative Party is the party of the police and police officers... quite frankly, with more police officers out there and greater police presence, I want [criminals] to literally feel terror at the thought of committing offences.
"The key thing is that we empower them to stop criminality."
Ms Patel's strong remarks echo Boris Johnson's plans to make fighting crime one of his priorities.
CRIME CRACKDOWN
No10 is set to spend £1.1billion over the next three years recruiting 20,000 officers.
The Home Office is also reportedly preparing to relax restrictions on stop and search.
The Government's tough new stance comes as knife crime across England and Wales has soared to a record high with more than 43,500 offences in the past year.
Shocking figures released today by the Office for National Statistics reveal an eight per cent increase on the previous 12 months.
There were 21,484 offences for possessing or making threats with a knife last year - the highest in nearly a decade.
The proportion of crimes being solved has decreased to the lowest level recorded, according to the data.
In the 12 months to the end of March, only 7.8 per cent of offences resulted in someone being charged or summonsed to appear at court.
The Sun Says
HATS off to Priti Patel for telling criminals that she’s coming after them.
The usual leftie hand-wringers complained about the new Home Secretary’s language, but guess what? The public also want offenders to be “terrified” and they want cops to know they’ve got backing from the very top.
Mrs Patel has plenty on her plate, not least delivering a new immigration system that allows the world’s best and brightest to thrive in the UK.
But so far, she’s made a Priti good start.
The figures exclude Greater Manchester Police, which is one of the biggest forces in the UK.
In April, figures revealed how Britain's murder rate is at its highest level in a decade with two people being killed every day,
Cops recorded 732 homicides in 2018 - the highest since 2008 - 607 of which were murders.
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