Fighting Crime (Public Engagement)

I am delighted to hear that. The provision is slightly patchy; in south Hampshire, there are active street pastor schemes that do extremely good work and I certainly praise them for that. However, there are not yet such schemes in some of the areas most at risk. Obviously, the Liberal Democrats say yes to neighbourhood policing, involvement and policing by consent. The success of neighbourhood policing in London is very clear—it raises visibility and gives reassurance, and the public can see the policing take place. That is not just a cosmetic effect; it results in more intelligence leads for the police and greater witness willingness. Both those things are very good. We also say yes to public information such as ward-level crime and detection data. Like the hon. Member for Hornchurch, I am very much in favour of crime mapping. Like all good ideas, it has many parents; failure is always an orphan. I was recently sitting next to the chairman of the West Yorkshire police authority, and he said that his authority was the first to come up with crime mapping. By all means, let us make it happen. Let us add in not only crime data, but detection data. As far as I know, my force in Hampshire is the only one that produces detection data as well as crime data at ward level. That is necessary to inform the public debate and ensure that the public can hold their local police force to account.