Police rail at Blunkett's national plan to cut crime

Document sacrifices local priorities and ignores ability to deliver, say chief constables

Police chiefs criticised a plan by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for national crime targets, warning yesterday that forces risked being swamped by bureaucracy and that the initiative might be doomed to failure.

Chief constables are also angry at what they see as excessive interference by the Government in the running of the police forces by setting an ever-growing list of priorities and action plans.

Mr Blunkett is losing patience with the police for their failure to reduce crime and push up detection rates, which have fallen to 24 per cent.

Mr Blunkett launched the first National Policing Plan yesterday, which makes national priorities of drug-related crime, street crime, burglary and antisocial behaviour. The plan dictates the areas that the 43 forces in England and Wales must grade when setting out local action plans.

Under the proposals, chief constables must include three-year targets for reducing vehicle crime, burglary and robbery. Chief officers are to develop strategies to respond quickly to domestic violence incidents; identify trends in gun crime and work with the community leaders to tackle the problem; maintain the drive to reduce street robbery by 14 per cent; and take action against badly run pubs and clubs.

But the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) criticised the measures and said the Home Secretary was sacrificing local crime priorities for national ones.

Chris Fox, the vice-president of Acpo, said: "[The plan] may not succeed due to its wide-ranging ambition and absence of consideration of the police ability to deliver. Whilst the document may be useful in describing the type of police service we would like to see, as a plan it may be a plan to fail."

He said: "It suggests over 50 actions and priorities that should be included in local planning with little space for flexibility ... We are concerned that each force is required to produce an increasing number of plans – local policing plan, the efficiency plan, the best value plan, the human resources plan and now the new 'Narrowing the Justice Gap' plan."

Mr Blunkett, speaking at the Association of Police Authorities' annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said: "The National Policing Plan is a working document, not a wish-list, informing local plans and putting people at the heart of policing.

"It is part of wider government reforms essential to reducing crime, antisocial behaviour and the fear of crime, and balancing justice in favour of victims."

Earlier he denied that there were any plans for a national police force.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for home affairs, said: "In every community, people want policing priorities to be decided by local police forces in conjunction with local people. What they want from the Government is the funding to pay for the necessary police."

Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "Here we go again – another initiative, another set of targets, another set of priorities, another headline, from a Government which is obsessed with initiatives, targets, priorities and headlines."