Brown pledges more 'bobbies on the beat' under new police reforms » Central Government » 24dash.com

Gordon Brown promised that more people would see a return of beat bobbies to their streets under police reforms unveiled today.

The Prime Minister said the new policing Green Paper would "clear the decks" and cut down on bureaucracy so officers could spend more time tackling crime instead of filling out forms.

He also repeated a warning that young people carrying knives would be prosecuted as new figures reportedly showed police recorded about 20,000 serious offences involving knives last year.

Speaking at 10 Downing Street alongside Association of Chief Police Officers president Ken Jones, Mr Brown said visible policing on the streets had cut violent crime.

He added: "We are clearing the decks, cutting the red tape, cutting back on bureaucracy, making it possible for policemen and women to spend far more time on the beat answering people's inquiries, in touch with local communities - a visible presence on the beat so that more and more people will see a policeman or woman there and able to help them."

Mr Jones, who is chief constable of Sussex Police, said senior officers were "very happy that they had been listened to in the creation of the Green Paper".

He went on: "These are significant changes to reduce bureaucracy.

"No targets are going to be set from the centre, other than those on confidence, although we will be setting targets locally according to what's happening in your neighbourhood, your street.

"We will work very hard through the summer to make sure that we land the advantages of these reforms, which fundamentally are about doing more in neighbourhoods."

Responding to annual crime figures revealing the true extent of knife crime across England and Wales, Mr Brown said he wanted to make carrying a blade as unacceptable as having a gun on the streets.

He said: "It is because we have identified the problem of knife crime, and particularly in some hotspots of the country, that we have stepped up our action dramatically.

"More stop and search, more visible policing, more metal detectors trying to spot where knives exist, and stepping up our action with tougher sentences and a determination to say to people: if you are caught with a knife, you will be prosecuted, if you have a knife you will be punished, and we will do everything in our power to prevent people having knives."

Mr Jones stressed that overall violent crime was continuing to fall - in particular the risk of being attacked on the streets by a stranger.

But he added: "Within this falling figure, we have got a serious problem around young people and knives."

Mr Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith spoke to chief constables and other senior police officers in a private meeting at Downing Street ahead of the publication of the Green Paper.