The Prime Minister uses an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to promise a series of tough measures, to be unveiled in the coming months, to fight crime and reclaim the streets from rioters, looters and gangs.
He pledges to support “zero tolerance” — a tough system of policing first popularised in the US which sees even minor offences prosecuted vigorously to send out the message that no form of law-breaking will be tolerated.
“I will be saying much more about that because I think it is true,” Mr Cameron says. “We haven’t talked the language of zero tolerance enough but the message is getting through.”
Mr Cameron has recruited Bill Bratton, the former US “supercop”, to advise him as he plans his autumn enforcement drive.
The Prime Minister is expected to give details of the new strategy in a major speech in the next few weeks.
He has already approved the use of water cannon if needed to quell violence, signalled that police will be allowed to order rioters to remove face coverings and threatened the possible disruption of social messaging networks if used to instigate trouble. In other developments yesterday:
- The number of arrests connected to last week’s disturbances soared, with the Metropolitan Police saying it had held 1,276 people. Of those, 748 have been charged.
West Midlands Police said they had made 509 arrests, while 208 people have been arrested by Greater Manchester Police. All three forces released more pictures of suspects.
- The Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner said he expected to see a total of 3,000 arrests in London. His force said it had arrested a 33-year-old man suspected of arson with intent to endanger life over the fire which destroyed a Croydon furniture store.
- The courts were flooded with more cases of alleged rioters, including Reece Donovan, 20, accused at City of Westminster magistrates’ of robbing Ashraf Rossli, an injured Malaysian student.
- The uncle of two brothers killed by a car while guarding shops from looters in Birmingham said: “This was not about race, this was not about religion — this was about a pure criminal act.”
An analysis by this newspaper showed that one in five of the cases of alleged rioters to appear in front of the courts involves children.
In his first newspaper interview since the disturbances, Mr Cameron pledges more action to help “strengthen families”. He claims there are around 100,000 “deeply broken and troubled” families in Britain and bemoans the lack of male role models for many boys and young men.
However, he rules out any climbdown over plans to cut police budgets, despite coming under fire over the issue both from Labour and his own party, including Boris Johnson, the mayor of London.
The Prime Minister says: “I think there is a danger sometimes of people seeking very, very complicated answers when there are quite simple [explanations] … these people who were nicking televisions were not complaining about the reform of the education maintenance allowance or tuition fees.
“They were nicking televisions because they wanted a television and they weren’t prepared to save up and get it like normal people.”
He pledges no retreat over plans to introduce directly elected police commissioners or to cut police budgets by six per cent over four years, which force chiefs say will lead to thousands fewer officers.
The aftermath of four consecutive nights of rioting around England has embroiled the Prime Minister in a major row with police after he criticised their tactics in failing to deal adequately with the most serious disturbances in London on Monday.
Mr Cameron has been attacked for being too late to return from his holiday in Italy to take charge of the fightback against the rioters.
He has said a full public inquiry into the rioting, called for by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, is not needed.
But yesterday Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, disclosed that the Government would commission “independent research” into the collapse of public order.
The study is likely to cost millions of pounds and will effectively be “owned” by the Government.
The research was necessary to provide “evidence”, Mr Clegg told Liberal Democrat activists in speeches in Liverpool and Manchester.
He said: “Why did some areas and people explode and others not?
“What can we learn from those neighbourhoods and young people who remained peaceful? We need to know what kind of people the rioters were, and why they did it.
“That is also why we are looking into gang culture, so that we can combat it more effectively. In policy-making, as in war, it is important to know your enemy.”
Mr Miliband, on a visit to Hackney, in east London, yesterday said if the Government did not conduct a full public inquiry into the riots then Labour would.
It was imperative for Britain to hold a “national discussion”, he added.
“After all other major disturbances in Britain there has been a proper public commission of inquiry — that is why the Government needs to get on with it,” he said.
David Cameron: It's time for a zero tolerance approach to street crime
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