Daily News Summary
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Main stories
Police claims `stop and search' cuts knife crime
Police claim recent figures show that increased stop and search activities have reduced knife crime incidents in London by one third since Operation Blunt 2 began a year ago.
Ind16, Sun2, Times20
Knife crime in London was examined by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies report: Street Weapons Commission available here
MP expenses claims scandal and calls for Speaker to stand down
All the papers are running extensive coverage of the emerging facts surrounding the various expenses claims made by MPs across the country. All papers report on the call for House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin to immediately resign as a result of his handeling of the expenses scandal, and David Cameron's call for a snap election. Gdn1,4-6, All papers
We thought this might be a good time to remind our readers of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies report: Law-abiding majority? The everyday crimes of the middle classes, available to download here.
Other stories
`CCTV is failing to cut crime'
A Government funded piece of research by the Campbell Foundation concluded that the installation of CCTV cameras has not had a significant impact on reducing offences in cities, housing estates and public transport. The Government spent £170 mill on installing cameras between 1999 and 2001. Sun2, DMail26
Social service staff suspended in Wales
Three social service staff in Wales have been suspended after placing a young person in a foster home without disclosing information about his previous sexual offences to the foster parents. An inquiry has concluded that social service staff were concentrating more on the needs of the young person than the risk to the foster family. Ind12
Children's database launched
A national database holding details on every child in England and Wales was launched yesterday, despite concern that the Government has not proven itself capable of protecting sensitive information falling into the `wrong hands'. Information stored on the database, Contact Point, is accessible to hundreds of thousands of government and voluntary sector workers and aims to draw together the education, social work and youth offending sector.
FT4
Comments, editorials, letters
`The truth outs - CCTV doesn't cut crime'
writes Henry Porter
`As the political consensus collapse, now all dissenters face supression'
Writes George Monbiot. Gdn27
`The little pople no longer look up to the big'
Says Rachel Sylvester. Times23
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These newspaper summaries are drawn up by staff at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. They are not intended to be comprehensive, or wholly uniform in their approach. Instead, they reflect our individual and collective perspectives on the day's coverage, including our judgements in terms of relevance to the Centre's concerns. On occasion, they also reflect the inevitable time constraints within which we work.
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