Labour has promised to fund thousands of new neighbourhood police officers like Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood – claiming the Tory government had abandoned the use of local knowledge to tackle crime.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper cited the BBC programme’s lead character as an inspiration as she accused the Tories of “walking away” from community policing.
She promised a Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer would recruit an extra 13,000 community police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) to tackle knife crime and drug dealing if elected.
“Catherine Cawood may be fiction,” said Ms Cooper. “But the stories of police officers like Catherine who know their communities, who pick up the things that everyone else misses to solve crimes and keep people safe, are very real. And we need more of them.”
In a speech at the Institute for Government, the shadow home secretary said Labour plans would also help to tackle anti-social behaviour, and prevent growing numbers of young people being drawn into gangs and violent crime.
“Half the country say they never see the police on patrol any more – that proportion has doubled since the Conservatives came to power,” she said.
Ms Cooper also took aim at a deliberately “hands-off Home Office” culture, saying the government had failed to deal with youth knife crime, drug dealing, town centre anti-social behaviour.
“Their laissez faire approach to crime and policing has badly let communities down. Labour will take a fundamentally different approach. We know that strong communities are safe communities,” she said.
The frontbencher added: “At its heart that means rebuilding and renewing the neighbourhood police who are at the heart of our communities and the fight against crime. Labour is the party of law and order.”
Ms Cooper said community officers would be expected to improve work aimed at preventing violence against women “You cannot rebuild trust and confidence in the police without rebuilding neighbourhood policing,” she said.
Citing the “truly shocking cases” of Sarah Everard’s murder by serving officer Wayne Couzens, and the multiple rapes by officer David Carrick, Ms Coooper said community offices could help rebuild trust alongside major reforms needed in vetting and standards.
Only 12 per cent of officers work in neighbourhood policing, compared to 19 per cent in 2010, according to Labour analysis of official figures. Around 6,000 neighbourhood police and more than 8,000 PCSOs have gone since 2015 alone.
But the government claimed it was recruiting the “most police officers we have ever had”, and criticised Labour’s record on crime.
Home Office minister Chris Philp said: “Labour’s announcement today is over four months old and further evidence of their soft on crime approach – their proposed investment is a tenth of what we are delivering.”
“Meanwhile this Conservative government is recruiting the most police officers we have ever had, with 20,000 fully funded extra police officers being recruited by April this year, equipped with full powers of arrest.”
