SDLP issues 12 point plan for safer communities

The SDLP have issued a 12 point plan which it says will lead to safer communities if implemented.

Policing spokesman Alex Attwood said his party would be pushing for full implementation of the plan over the next fours within the District Policing Partnerships and the Policing Board.

He added: “We are in year two of Patten’s ten year programme and already the SDLP has ensured radical change. We have got the structures right. Now we have to ensure that they deliver community safety for everybody.

“Our communities are calling out for protection against crime. That is why we are on the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships. We can best fight crime if we all work together."

In the next four years on the District Policing Partnerships, Policing Board and elsewhere, Mr Attwood said his party would work towards:

• preventing crime against the elderly;
• stronger laws against car crime;
• dedicated strategies against sectarian crime;
• combating anti-social behaviour;
• improving response times from police;
• introducing crime units for burglaries;
• ensuring police tackle drugs pushers and traffickers;
• enforcing underage drinking law;
• improving on the ground policing;
• more accessible police stations;
• working with local communities to combat crime and;
• driving forward Patten within the Policing Board and DPP’s.

“Sinn Fein criticise us for our stance on policing. I am challenging them to tell us what they are going to do on car crime, protection of the elderly and on burglaries," Mr Attwood said.

"Their manifesto has little to say on these issues. Because people know that there is little that they can do. They are not on the Policing Board. They are not on the DPP’s. All they have delivered is their seats on these bodies to anti-Patten unionists," he concluded.

(MB)