Blair: Liberal law and order over (satellite tracking in crime plan)

[JohnLocke]

Liberal law and order days over, says Blair
Labour's crime plan includes satellite tracking of 5,000 worst offenders
By Alan Travis and Michael White -- The Guardian
Monday, July 19, 2004
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Tony Blair will today make the provocative claim that Labour's new five-year crime plan heralds "the end of the 1960s liberal consensus on law and order" by putting the values of the law-abiding majority at the centre of the criminal justice system.
In tandem with the home secretary, David Blunkett, who has also attacked "Hampstead liberals" in the past, the prime minister will seek to refocus public attention on a key feature of the domestic agenda which is of growing concern to Labour voters.
While insisting that the sixties removed ugly prejudices and expanded individual freedoms, Mr Blair is expected to concede that the new lifestyles did not sufficiently foster responsibility to others, family discipline or role models - and focused the law and order system too much on offenders' rights.
In less populist terms an expansion of the national DNA database and new satellite tracking technology to keep tabs on Britain's 5,000 most prolific offenders are at the core of the Home Office's five year anti-crime plan being published by Mr Blunkett today. It will be matched by a new approach to neighbourhood policing, with "community-focused justice" at the centre of the government's next phase of its drive against antisocial behaviour.
(...)
It will be underpinned by a growth in youth inclusion projects which offer sports and mentoring focused on out-of-control "feral teenage children" in high crime areas. But the five-year plan will also place a strong emphasis on using new technology to cut crime.
Satellite technology is to be used to tag and track offenders after they have been released from prison and while they are serving community penalties such as work orders. Ministers hope that this new generation of electronic tagging will enable the police and probation services to know where offenders have been, including scenes of crime, and help boost public confidence in alternatives to prison.
A decision is to be made later this summer on whether sex offenders will also face compulsory lie detector tests after their release from prison to ensure that they have no intention of reoffending.
A new national register of violent and sex offenders containing details of the 5,000 most prolific offenders is also to be developed to give the police instant access to the most accurate and detailed information on all known dangerous offenders.
The controversial national DNA database will also get a funding boost to ensure that it contains samples from all known prolific active offenders and kept up to date.
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Read the rest here
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1984, anyone?

[Joy Anne]

1. Blair's plans

Obviously, Tony's been hanging out in worse company than the lager loutettes, namely, George Bush, John Ashcroft, and their gang.

The neighborhoods bit sounds like China under the Red Guard.

[JohnLocke]

2. Kick (nt).

[JohnLocke]

3. Kick (nt).