Members of the public will soon be able to type their postcode into a criminal justice website and find out who the convicted criminals are in their neighbourhood, the home secretary indicated yesterday.
Jacqui Smith said the government was "working in the direction" of ensuring that every court in England and Wales would be able to put the outcome of their cases into the public domain to let people know about the consequences faced by those who break the rules.
Ministers are also considering door-to-door leafleting campaigns publicising the conviction of local adult offenders on particular high crime problem estates.
The home secretary was speaking at the launch of a £3.5m communications campaign, called Justice Seen Justice Done, to improve non-emergency public access to the police and ensure they respond to people's crime concerns. From today the public will be able to go online, type their postcode into a national portal - direct.gov.uk/policingpledge - and be taken straight to the webpage of their local neighbourhood policing team where they will find their contact details, including a mobile phone number, local crime maps and information about local policing priorities.
A new text service is also being launched today which will allow the public to get details of their neighbourhood policing team via their mobile phone by texting the word "pledge" followed by their postcode to 66101.
A new poster campaign with the slogan "You have the right not to remain silent" is to highlight the new policing pledge signed up to by all 43 police forces in England and Wales which spells out the standard of service the public should expect from them.
The launch of the website and text service follows a decision to drop plans for a national non-emergency helpline staffed by police and local council staff to deal with antisocial behaviour. Pilot schemes in five areas were wound up amid concerns about rising costs. The establishment of the national helpline was promised in Labour's 2005 general election manifesto.
Louise Casey, the government's crime and justice adviser, said a new Ipsos Mori poll for the Home Office showed that only 47% of people knew about the services provided by their local police, compared with 74% who knew about their local GP services and 62% who were aware of what service standards to expect from their local council.
"By knowing about the policing pledge, local people can have an unprecedented say over how their communities are policed and an opportunity to hold the police to account," she said.
The home secretary said the new campaign was crucial in ensuring that the public knew about the minimum standard of service they should expect from the police. The pledge includes responding to 999 calls within 10 seconds, sets down non-emergency response times, and promises monthly public meetings to agree neighbourhood priorities.
In areas where the public feel the police have failed to deliver on their pledge there will be complaints procedures, with the Independent Police Complaints Commission the final arbiter.
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Topic: Justice seen justice done (Read 1882 times)