𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

We all know what’s going on. You pay for your train ticket, walk through the barrier, and then someone forces their way through behind you. Nobody stops them. You look around, half-expecting a member of staff to do something, but the offender has already disappeared down the escalator. Gone.

In moments like these, we might not be frightened, but we’re all annoyed. Irritated. Angry. And the question going through all of our minds is perfectly reasonable: why am I being mugged off for following the rules?

It’s the same for the shopkeeper who reports a thief for the third time. He doesn’t need a lecture about the “root causes” of criminality. He wants to know the thief won’t come back. He wants the thief caught and punished. We all do. Except apparently the Conservative party, who told the police not to bother investigating thefts below £200.

Calling this sort of thing “low-level crime” is convenient for politicians. But I’m not a politician. I’m a crimefighter. A manhunter. I’m the former Detective Chief Inspector for the Metropolitan Police who led the investigation into Milly Dowler’s murder. I locked up serial killer Levi Bellfield, and serial rapist Delroy Grant.

But, some of the cases I am most proud of are those that people don’t know about. The thefts, the muggings, the drug dealing. The so-called petty crime, that gnaws away at society and neighbourhoods.

Every crime matters. Every indignity matters. And as Reform UK’s Policing and Crime Advisor, it is my number one priority to bring not just everyday safety back to British streets, but to ensure we fix our broken institutions, and end two-tier policing.

No more having to watch your back. No more getting mugged off.

Our S.A.F.E. plan, which we’re launching today, commits us to tackling all crime, big or small. Local and national.

We’re prioritising your Safety with a massive expansion of stop-and-search powers and 30,000 more officers on the street. We’ll come down hard on Anti-social disorder, banning balaclavas and on nuisances like illegal e-bikes. We’re intent on having Functioning institutions, ending early release for serious criminals and ensuring that our brave police officers are protected from woke outfits like the College of Policing. We will doggedly pursue Equal enforcement; DEI will be ripped out of British policing.

Protecting people must come first. Serious violence, sexual offences, and criminals who prey on vulnerable victims require painstaking investigation and properly-equipped specialist police.

It is a scandal that only one in ten sexual offences results in a conviction. And what happens in those handful of cases which result in a conviction? Too often plastic sentences. Take the pedophilic men who view and send child pornography. Of those convicted on this basis, fewer than 1 in 5 will see the inside of a prison cell.

At the same time, British neighbourhoods and high streets up and down our country have been left to criminal gangs because in this day and age, it’s deemed easier or simpler just to let it all fester. There seems to be no interest in tackling the persistent harassment, especially of women, in our communities. Things like vandalism and threatening behaviour go totally unassailed but they create misery for people every single day. It’s not on. It’s not the country we want to live in.

The distinction between serious crime and everyday disorder matters operationally. But one can’t be abandoned in pursuit of the other.

Making the machinery of all of this work against the criminals is not glamorous. But it’s critical and often ignored.

People need to feel like they know what’s being investigated, why, and what the process is going to look like. The idea that someone comes and takes a statement and then you never hear from them again is just insulting for everyone. And it’s a waste of time.

Where there’s no realistic prospect of identifying an offender, an honest explanation is better than a reference number presented as though it were a result in and of itself. It is unacceptable that over two million crimes go unsolved each year. Two million victims without answers. Two million criminals who escaped justice.

Equal enforcement is what holds the whole thing together. It’s part of the social contract of our nation. Over the last five years, as law and order has collapsed, the police have found time to arrest over 60,000 for speech offences. This is a stain in itself, but also indicative of the warped priorities of British policing.

Punishments for real crimes matter. But if you’re going to get tough in rhetoric, you’ve got to match that in prison capacity and broader infrastructure. We’ve all watched local police stations close at the same time successive governments have tried to pretend they’re “getting tough.” People can see through such empty claims. And critically, so can criminals.

Reform UK has a plan. The S.A.F.E. plan. The practical and common sense answers, led by people who have a track record of success in bringing even the most hardened criminals to justice.

The people following the rules have kept their side of the bargain. It is time for the government to keep theirs. And that starts on day one of a Reform UK administration.