Robbin' and the Hoods

Is Nottinghamshire's police force drowning under a wave of violent crime?

Chief constable Steve Green certainly seems to think so. 'We are reeling with murders', he told the Sunday Telegraph. 'We are in a longstanding crisis situation with major crime and it won't go away overnight.' The rate of 'category A' murders - those which involved a premeditated attack with no obvious suspect - has certainly increased, from one incident every year or so, to 21 cases in the past four years. However, the risk of being a victim of such a crime is still tiny.

While this may be an issue for police resourcing, it certainly has little impact on wider society. Moreover, these murders are largely committed in the parallel universe of drug gangs. They only intrude on the lives of the rest of us on those very rare occasions when, as in the case of schoolgirl Danielle Beccan, someone gets caught in the crossfire.

It may be the case that Nottinghamshire police can't do their job because they are underfunded - or it could be a case of the rent-a-quote Green attempting to stir up political controversy, and a crime panic, to deflect criticism from his own poor management. What is clear is that this won't be the last example of a public official engaging in a bit of special pleading in the run-up to the election.

Police chief: we cannot cope with violent crime, Sunday Telegraph, 13 March 2005