Weak Police Mean London is Burning

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Americans often think of Britain as a peaceful and law-abiding society. This idea is now being challenged by the ongoing London riots, and another data point suggests that the problem is even deeper – figures from last year show that London’s crime rate has now surpassed New York City for most types of violent crime.

To find out what’s driving this shift and what New York can teach London about crime control, FrumForum spoke to Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, who has written extensively about policing and crime policy in New York. Mac Donald attributed the city’s successes in crime control to “the concept of ‘proactive policing’ - trying to interrupt crime before it happens, rather than merely responding after the fact.” She said that “a key component of such policing is the willingness to stop and question individuals who are engaged in suspicious behavior.”

Mac Donald claims that London’s Metropolitan Police “abandoned any pretense of proactive policing after the 1999 Macpherson report accused the department of ‘institutional racism.’” That report made more than 70 recommendations aimed at strengthening police accountability and cracking down on racism, including the creation of an independent commission to monitor racism in the police force, an expanded definition of what counts as a “racist incident,” and new penalties for police officers accused of racism. A 2009 report from the British Parliament’s Home Affairs committee, which deals with law enforcement issues, found that 67 of the report’s recommendations had been implemented.

Mac Donald argued that in the years after the report’s publication, the Metropolitan Police “has at times seemed more concerned with avoiding any possible accusations of racism than with an aggressive response to crime.” She also noted that Britain’s Parliament has repealed the nation’s “stop and frisk” laws, thereby banning the policy of stopping suspicious individuals that she thought had been successful in New York.