Opinion: 90% of crime is going unsolved: we can’t go on like this.

Knocking on doors in Northampton, I’ve lost count - just in the last couple of months alone - of the number of residents who’ve told me that they or someone on their street has been the victim of crime. And, even though the crime has been reported, nothing further has happened.

In many areas of town, people tell me that preventing burglaries, car thefts and all sorts of totally unacceptable anti-social behaviour is their number one concern right now.

All of this fits with the national picture. Shockingly, at the moment over 90% of crimes are going unsolved. That’s a damning indictment of the state of law and order in this country today.

And it’s even worse when you look at individual crimes. Take burglary, for example: in any one day in England and Wales, 500 families will have their homes broken into, and only 20 of those families will see their burglar face charges.

Violent crime is no better. Last year’s domestic abuse statistics for Northamptonshire showed that only 5% of local domestic abuse crimes were charged (let alone convicted), lower than the national average. So 95% of local domestic abusers don’t face court.

It is often said that the first duty of government is to protect its people and in this country, we expect respect for the rule of law. We expect government to enable the proper protection of communities, the prevention of crime and the punishment of those who don’t obey the rules.

Well, at the moment that’s not happening. More and more criminals are getting away with it and more and more victims are being let down. Public confidence in the criminal justice system is at rock bottom, and, to top it off, we’ve got a Tory Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner here in Northants whose judgment has been seriously called into question with the distracting chaos around one of his senior appointments.

The bottom line is that people have a right to feel safe and, at the moment, far too many don’t. Here in Northampton, we demand better.

People tell me they want to see more police on the streets. 20,000 officers have been cut since 2010. Labour will put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the beat and recruit more detectives, helping to both prevent and solve crime.

We also need to hire more prosecutors and stop ignoring the latest technology that will help prosecutors with caseloads. Speeding up and modernising court processes is our best way of ensuring that all crimes are properly investigated and victims seejustice.

That’s how we need to deal with the crisis in law and order that has been allowed to grow in these last 13 years of Tory government.

We’ve got to restore respect for the rule of law and public faith in our criminal justice system because, one thing is for sure: we can’t go on like this.