This article is from the October 2011 issue of Total Politics
My piece of memorabilia is a picture of me holding a meerkat on the day we launched crime reduction partnerships in London. With me is Denis O’Connor – then an assistant commissioner at the Met and now the chief inspector of constabulary. Our message was powerful and effective – that we should be alert and look after each other like meerkats – was taken up across the media. But nobody had prepared the meerkat for the popping of camera bulbs and my abiding memory is of the warm feeling in my hand as the poor creature’s nervous system kicked in.
I was involved in the criminal justice system long before I became an MP. As a youth worker, and then as chair of Juvenile Magistrates in Cardiff, I saw how getting caught up in crime would ruin the lives of a youngster and his family as well as the victim and the community.
In 1997 Labour won power and Tony Blair appointed me as deputy home secretary with responsibility for the Crime and Disorder Act to deliver our promise to be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”.
This launch was one of many as the crime and disorder reduction partnerships kicked in. Both the partnerships and the youth offending teams that were set up by the same Act have made a real impact in terms of cutting crime and reducing reoffending.
Crime is not just the responsibility of the police. Local councils, NHS Trusts, the fire brigade, the probation service, local business owners and local people all have a part to play in reducing crime. It works – and this photograph reminds me of the change that I helped to make in the UK’s criminal justice system. And also the time I was peed on by a meerkat.
Alun Michael is the Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth
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