THERE appears to be a fascination in the media with making comparisons between levels of safety in London and New York. Jack Grimston (If New York can tame them, so can we, News Review, last week) highlights homicides in London this year and compares “muggings” in London and New York, and the potential applicability of New York’s zero tolerance approach to “taming” London.

Most debate about crime is about 90% opinion and 10% fact. The level of gun-enabled crime in London is down 10% this year and we have achieved a detection rate of 25%, which compares favourably with the same period last year.

Over the same period, for offences where a firearm is discharged, the detection rate has risen from 19% to 40%. The number of people arrested for offences of commercial robbery committed with a firearm has increased by 42%. As a percentage of overall crime, gun crime in London remains one of the lowest of comparable world cities and significantly lower than that in New York.

There were 13 reported homicides in London during October 2004 while the figure for New York City was 34. The Metropolitan Police has increased its detection rate for this crime from 81% last year to 97% this year. And so far, the number of homicides in the capital is down about 11%.

Grimston acknowledges that New York continues to have a higher homicide rate than London, but says “this reflects a higher level of armed gang warfare”. It is difficult to see how these higher levels of gang warfare and higher homicide rates are indicative of how a “zero tolerance” strategy makes New York “tamer” than London.

While not wishing to minimise the tragedy of each incident, sadly they are indicative of the society we live in, but we need to get away from the unhelpful London-New York debate. We need to work together to build community confidence and reduce fear, not perpetuate it.

Tarique Ghaffur
Assistant Commissioner
Metropolitan Police