Police to walk people home from money machines

Gordon Brown urges police to walk people home from cashpoint

• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 May 2009 19.04 BST

Gordon Brown today urged police across England and Wales to offer to walk the last mile home with people who feel unsafe after they visit the cashpoint.

He floated the idea, pioneered by the Wanstead neighbourhood police team in east London, when he delivered his first major speech about crime at Chelsea FC's conference centre today.

While Tony Blair faced ridicule for threatening to march young thugs to the cashpoint to pay their fines, Brown was criticised for assuming that the police have the time to escort people home from the bank.

In his wide-ranging speech, the prime minister defended the government's civil liberties record over the use of CCTV cameras and the decision not to immediately delete the profiles of 850,000 innocent individuals from the DNA database.

He confirmed that the government is to overhaul its strategy to tackle organised crime gangs, including making it easier to seize their property by introducing legislation shifting the burden of proof so that their houses, yachts and cars can be seized immediately by extending the powers that already covers their cash.

Brown defended the record of the much-criticised Serious and Organised Crime Agency, saying it was here to stay. [more]