Blair toured a police academy, where he promised to recruit 6,000 more officers, and recently became the first British leader to visit a prison. His government has installed more surveillance cameras to monitor streets and unveiled a plan to combat Internet crime. Longer sentences, but better drug treatment. There's a promise of more sports facilities to keep youngsters off the street. The opposition Conservatives, meanwhile, say violent crime has risen since the Labor government was elected in 1997.
Critics accuse both parties of scare-mongering.
Those statistics paint a contradictory picture. According to government figures, reported crimes fell by 0.2 percent in the 12 months through last September. Violent crime did rise by 8 percent, but government statisticians said the rate of increase had slowed. A poor district with unemployment double the national rate of 5.1 percent, it is a center for drug dealing and recorded 14 murders last year, the highest number among London's 32 boroughs. Still, crime is not a top concern for many in the borough, which is one of the most ethnically diverse in London and is home to a thriving art scene.