Would you pay more tax to pay for more police officers?

We have sent camera teams out across the country for people’s opinions.

Transcript

00:00 I would be prepared to pay more tax to see more police officers but I feel like the police

00:11 have to prioritise what they investigate. I don't think they spend enough time investigating

00:16 fraud. I think there's a lot of pressure on them from different people who want to push

00:20 their own agenda. So I would pay more to get a better service from the police, whether

00:25 that means more police on the beat.

00:27 One response there to the question of more tax for more police officers. The government

00:32 say they plan to increase their proposed funding package for 2024-25, pledging up to £18.4

00:39 billion to support the police in reducing crime, addressing anti-social behaviour and

00:46 pursuing county-lines gangs. If elected, Labour intends to enact laws to enhance local police

00:52 patrols, aiming to recruit 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, each assigned

00:59 to a specific community, supported by legislation to ensure more community patrols targeting

01:06 anti-social behaviour and crime.

01:08 I mean, where are they? A crime happens, you ring, you can wait 12, 15 hours, sometimes

01:15 the next day if they don't see it of any importance. So you're waiting around for things that have

01:19 happened, for crime reference numbers until they come to see you. You keep waiting over

01:23 a day, so you can't... what are they doing?

01:25 If I was working, definitely be up for that. You know, if I thought I could help the police

01:30 in some way, because I'm a citizen that agrees with, you know, if you've done wrong, you've

01:35 done wrong and you should pay the price. Why should we have to put up with it in this day

01:38 and age?

01:39 Police aren't running a very good way. The Met has started taking steps to put its house

01:43 in order, but it has a long record of mishandling cases and misogyny and institutional racism,

01:50 which needs sorting out.

01:51 Spending it for police, I don't really see that. As myself, being a mixed race person

01:56 and being stopped by police multiple times for things I haven't even done, I wouldn't

02:00 really assume that's the way to go. I think it'd be better to put that tax money to, like

02:05 I said, education, schools, children, and actually teach children and teach people why

02:10 violence was wrong.

02:11 You need some criteria where that funding's going to go to. And you've got some criteria

02:16 and it's going to go into grassroots, always into actually people where you can see it's

02:21 been making a difference.

02:22 If you look after the younger generation, they look after you later, right, and they'll

02:27 be good citizens. So it'd be a good idea to have a bit more police on the beat, pay a

02:34 bit more tax.

02:35 Well, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics do give an interesting

02:39 picture on the state of crime in the UK. They say it's fallen to its lowest level on record.

02:46 Incidents of violent crime have dropped by 28% in the year to June 2023. They say the

02:52 decline has been driven by a fall in criminal damage and fraud offences being recorded by

02:57 the police. The drop is a significant 20% decrease on levels before the pandemic.

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