In 1986, Margaret Thatcher was (though neither she nor anyone could know at the time) into the second half of her 11 years as prime minister. Crime was rising, and a political issue. Hence, as a file at the National Archives shows, a crime prevention seminar on January 8, 1986, at 10 Downing Street, chaired by the PM, which serves as a snapshot of the Thatcherite era.
A letter by the Home Secretary Douglas Hurd to Mrs Thatcher of February 6, 1986 opens file HO 287/4090. Hurd was full of praise for โyour successful seminar on crime preventionโ, which had โresulted in a wide range of initiativesโ. Working groups would follow, for example one on shop theft. Another, on commercial robbery, โwill be asked to draw up an advisory package of preventative techniques to protect commercial premises such as banks, building societies and sub post offices from attackโ. Hurd proposed to chair a private meeting of eight to ten people, โprincipally from commerce and industry โฆ. to encourage those present to offer sponsorship for crime prevention projects โฆ. both money and seconded personnelโ. He went so far as to suggest a National Society for Crime Prevention, separate from government, โto keep crime prevention in the public eyeโ. He also proposed that ministers visit local projects. As some of the letter implied, the Government was looking to get good publicity for what it was doing (and get business to stump up); and to get crime prevention, not a glamorous topic, talked about more. Indeed, Mrs Thatcher when opening the seminar, according to the minutes, acknowledged that crime prevention โrarely made the headlinesโ.
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Speaking next was the Home Office permanent under secretary Sir Brian Cubbon. He spoke of the country having โten to 12 millionโ crimes in the previous year, itself an admission of how little detail the authorities had about the problem. He spoke of a need to make an environment as โhostileโ to crime as it was to disease, and fire. Hence the Home Office had a crime prevention unit, and ran a recent โmagpiesโ television advertising campaign (urging people to take care of their property). In more detail, the seminar went into theft of and from cars (which Mrs Thatcher said was some 25 per cent of recorded crime) and then residential burglary; and violent crime, singling out offences against women; bank robbery; violence on the London Underground; and in pubs. As for crime in the workplace, the National Health Training Authority was to devise training for NHS staff on crime prevention. โPost Griffithsโ โ a businessman, Roy Griffiths, had reported for the Government in 1983 on how to better manage the NHS โ management changes had already helped reduce crime in hospitals, according to the minutes. Accident departments in hospitals were a particular focus of violence, and much was alcohol-related. As for shop theft, the seminar heard of 200 โanti theft groupsโ of shopkeepers as effective that ought to be extended. Mrs Thatcher at the end of the seminar said that a note of โaction pointsโ should be circulated. As that hinted, she well understood that it was one thing even at the very top of Government to talk about what needed doing; another thing to get anything done about it started, let alone carried through.
Who was there
Besides Mrs Thatcher and other ministers, 44 attended; including executives of car manufacturers; police chiefs such as Sir Kenneth Newman of the Met; insurers; Norman Willis of the TUC; and from the security industry, PG Crossland, MD of Racal-Chubb and BSIA trade association director-general (and Conservative MP) John (later Sir John) Wheeler.
What next
Those attending got a standard letter thanking them, and saying that โthe prime minister very much hopes that the agreed action will now be carried forward with commitment in the months aheadโ. The Home Secretary would chair a seminar in the summer to take stock of progress. As for what might get in the way, one thing was the press of events. In the days after the seminar, Westminster was convulsed by the resignation of Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, which came near to forcing the end of Mrs Thatcherโs premiership.
For part two, visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/blogs/mark-rowe/security-in-history-mrs-thatcher-and-crime-prevention-part-two/.
