Claim: Criminals Have "High Chance Of Getting Away With It" In Crawley

A councillor in Crawley has repeated his claim that criminals have a very high chance of getting away with crime committed in the town.

Peter Lamb spoke during a borough council meeting last Wednesday (October 18) where he appealed for neighbourhood policing to be put ‘at the heart of our police force’.

Tabling a motion which also called for work to be carried out with the Safer Crawley Partnership to organise regular public meetings with the police, Mr Lamb (Lab, Northgate & West Green) said:

"From Langley Green to Maidenbower, I’ve heard residents raise many different issues about policing [and] wherever we go it continues to be a major priority.

"From regular drug dealing that I’ve heard [of] around the parade in Langley Green to bikes being stolen in Maidenbower, people are not confident that their issues are being prioritised.

"They see the crimes – what they are not seeing, I’m afraid, is our local police."

Mr Lamb acknowledged the hard work and dedication shown by police officers and PCSOs but criticised what he called the ‘mismanagement of resources’.

Taking aim at Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, he called on her to put aside ‘pet projects’ and make neighbourhood policing a key priority.

His choice of words was not welcomed by Jennifer Millar-Smith (Con, Maidenbower) who pointed out that those ‘pet projects’ included areas such as stalking and harassment as well as investing in the likes of Crawley Kicks, a football initiative aimed at preventing antisocial behaviour and knife crime among young people.

Much of Mr Lamb’s speech smacked of being a practice run for any election speeches he plans to make as part of his bid to become the town’s next MP.

Declaring that residents ‘should not be forced to wait until the return of a Labour Government to see their concerns acted upon’ did not go down particularly well with the Tory contingent.

He told the meeting that, over the past year, only 6 per cent of crimes reported in Crawley had resulted in some one being charged.

Tory leader Duncan Crow queried that figure saying he had been told it was actually 7.2% per cent in the year to the end of September.

Neither figure is likely to impress the town’s residents but, as Mr Crow pointed out, the decision as to whether to prosecute falls to the CPS not the police.

Wondering how many crimes went unreported due to lack of confidence in the police to respond, Mr Lamb said:

"Right now, under this government, if you commit a crime in Crawley you have a 19 in 20 case chance of getting away with it.”

Mr Crow said the motion was ‘a political stunt’, adding:

"The motion is based on fear-mongering and misinformation and is designed to discredit [Mrs] Bourne, who in fact take the concerns of local residents very seriously indeed."

He also warned that continually repeating the claim that residents and businesses were not reporting crime because they didn’t think anything would be done, would help it to ‘become a self-fulfilling prophecy’.

Mr Crow added:

"Neighbourhood policing is already being given a great emphasis."

The meeting was held on the same day that Mrs Bourne’s office announced that antisocial behaviour in Crawley had dropped by 15 per cent.

Mrs Bourne said:

"I know from speaking with local residents that antisocial behaviour causes grief to the community so I am glad to see levels of this crime reduce thanks to the hard work of Sussex Police and partners.

"We know there is always more we can do to make our towns safer.

“This is why, in my tenure as PCC, I have not reduced the amount of funding provided to Community Safety Partnerships because I believe in empowering them to invest money wisely in initiatives that will have the greatest positive impact on their residents."