Plans to name and shame criminals online

Minister's plans for new crime mapping website could lead to further crime, warns West Berkshire Lib Dem

CRIMINALS in West Berkshire could soon be named and shamed on a police website.

Policing and criminal justice minister Nick Herbert said he wants to add convicted offenders' name, age, home town and photograph, plus the sentence they received, to the existing crime mapping website.

A similar scheme is currently being trialled by West Yorkshire Police.

Currently Thames Valley Police only publishes details of occasional, high profile convictions and force spokesman Christopher Kearney said there were no plans to routinely publish convicts' details on the force website.

However, he said Thames Valley Police (TVP) had no objection in principle to the information being made available on the Home office crime mapping website.

Chief Constable for TVP, Sara Thornton said: “It is often said that those people who are committing crime are getting away with it.

"By putting details of convicted offenders on the crime maps we can show that is not the case. I hope that the prospect of having their name widely known in the community will make offenders think twice before causing harm to others.”

Government research, published online, suggests that 83 per cent of people questioned want to know what sentence people convicted of crime have received and 69 per cent want to know the names of the guilty.

Launched in January, www.police.uk allows people to type in a postcode and find out what crime and antisocial behaviour has been committed in their neighbourhood.

The site was so popular that it crashed almost as soon as it went online and has so far received more than 420 million hits.

Chairwoman of the bench of West Berkshire Magistrates, Janey Walker, declined to comment on the proposals, saying they were a matter of Government policy.

Newbury MP Richard Benyon said that they were "entirely justifiable".

He added that it was important for people to know the outcome of a crime and to hold police, politicians and the criminal justice system to account."

However, West Berkshire councillor David Rendel (Lib Dem, Thatcham Central) said that, on balance, he was opposed to the idea.

"You can't hide your name in court and it's a matter of public record. But to indiscriminately name and shame people can be counterproductive," he said, adding: "It can make it almost impossible for them to get a job and that can lead to further crime which is not a good thing for victims.

“Obviously there will be exceptions if someone is dangerous and the public need to be alerted but to routinely name and shame criminals seems like deliberately trying to make it difficult for them to be rehabilitated.”

But Mr Herbert insisted: “We are determined to increase transparency and enable the public to hold the justice system to account.”