HOW many people have stopped me in town and said: "Mr Straw, that Audit Commission report on neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour was very interesting wasn't it?"
Well, none, to be precise. Blackburn is full of perfectly normal people, not anoraks who spend their leisure time reading official reports from a body of which few have probably heard.
On the other hand, Blackburn has a lot to be proud of about the report, for one because for a decade we have been right in the vanguard of all the work on anti-social behaviour.
The Audit Commission probably sounds as though it's a bunch of accountants. It does have the job of auditing the accounts of local councils (and the NHS). And it does employ plenty of accountants to ensure that taxpayers' money is only spent when authorised and to guard against fraud and corruption.
But the Commission's role goes much wider than just being a financial watchdog it is to check on value for money as well.
Ten years ago when I was Shadow Home Secretary, the Commission wrote an excellent report saying that millions were wasted processing young offenders back and forth through the "revolving doors" of the juvenile courts, but with no proper focus on the outcomes for the offender, or the victim.
I then tried the system at the sharp end in the Blackburn Courts. I spoke to a lot of people involved; and came up with ideas later put into law to transform the way we dealt with juvenile delinquents. The same has been true in respect of anti-social behaviour but more so.
Roll back more than a decade: Shadworth Estate and other parts of town; a "dysfunctional" family running riot, with witnesses intimidated so that the police could do little about it. The then police chief in town, Chief Superintendent Eddie Walsh, and I discussed what should be done.
We agreed that the only answer was to give the criminal courts a power to make an injunction against an offender, requiring them to stop the bad behaviour on pain of imprisonment.
Thus was born the "Anti-Social Behaviour Order" or "ASBO".
Alongside ASBOs, I set up in my first big anti-crime law (the Crime and Disorder Act 1998) "Crime and Disorder Partnerships" which require the police and local councils to work with each other tackle "neighbours from hell" street crime and much else. There are successful such partnerships around East Lancashire.
This report, eight years on, looks at progress on the crime and disorder partnerships. At the regular residents' meetings I have been doing around town over the past three plus years one of the most impressive things is to hear Chief Superintendent Dave Mallaby give the really local figures for example "in the last six months, 5 thefts from a car, one of a car". Then everyone can understand. It is obvious Blackburn is leading the way.
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