A LEADING chief constable attacked the Government’s “hairy chest” approach to law and order yesterday after Tony Blair announced a series of Home Office measures to tackle crime.

Terry Grange criticised the constant introduction of new legislation which, he said, was done without planned thinking and was based largely on the need to respond to critics.

His broadside came as the Home Office won the lion’s share of promised legislation, with proposals to address continuing public worries about immigration, crime and antisocial behaviour.

Opponents said that Britain would be the safest country in the world if legislation was the answer to tackling law and order. There have been 60 Home Office Bills since Labour came to power, including more than 30 on law and order.

Mr Grange, the chief constable of Dyfed-Powys, said: “Instead of planned thinking we get respond, respond, respond. We get into the male thing: ‘my chest is hairier than yours’ politics, which bedevils this whole arena of crime prevention.”

He told a conference organised by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London that “ever-tougher” legislation was followed by attacks from the media, from politicians, and “inevitably” from government. “We have a risk-averse society promised absolute safety, and it cannot be delivered.”

A key plank of Mr Blair’s final months in office will be the fight against terrorism, although further legislation must await the outcome of court hearings and a review of the capabilities and resources involved in tackling terror.

Several key issues are still unresolved. Ministers have yet to decide formally whether to allow phone-tap evidence in trials and the Home Office is appealing against an Appeal Court judgment that 18-hour control orders amount to house arrest.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, is being provided with the opportunity to showcase his political skills and leadership potential with four Bills, including two aimed at tackling antisocial behaviour and organised criminality.

The Organised Crime Bill will impose “super” antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) on gangsters against whom there is not enough evidence to prosecute or whose activities the police wish to disrupt.

A separate Criminal Justice Bill, expected in April, will allow trials to go ahead even where the defendant has failed to turn up, provide more summary justice for low-level crime and give the police the power to close premises where there is antisocial behaviour.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, accused Mr Reid of grandstanding after an “annus horibilis” for the Home Office.

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