Young thugs and gang members should be made to “fear” the police and the prospect of serious punishment for acts such as looting, says David Cameron’s new crime adviser.
Bill Bratton, David Cameron's new crime adviser, says that young criminals like the 12-year-old boy on the left should 'fear' the police Photo
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Bill Bratton, the former New York police chief, said many young people, especially gang members, had been “emboldened” by over-cautious policing tactics and lenient sentencing policies.
Losing public confidence in its ability to provide security — through force if necessary — created “incredible difficulty” for a police force, he said.
To be effective, a police force should have “a lot of arrows in the quiver,” said Mr Bratton, advocating a doctrine of “escalating force” where weapons including rubber bullets, Tasers, pepper spray and water cannon were all available to commanders.
Mr Cameron is an admirer of Mr Bratton’s approach to policing and has asked the American to advise him on gangs and urban violence following this week’s riots in English cities.
The disturbances led to criticism of the police for their initial response. Mr Cameron said commanders used the wrong tactics in the early stages and treated the situation too much as a public order issue, rather than “essentially one of crime”.
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