PM tells police to report to ministers

Tony Blair has seized an unprecedented degree of control over the police by ordering 10 forces to report weekly crime figures directly to senior ministers.

The forces chosen have the worst records on street crime and cover inner city areas where 80 per cent of all muggings and assaults are committed.

Each has been paired with a member of the emergency Cabinet committee set up by the Prime Minister in February in an attempt to reverse the huge increase in muggings which are blamed for inflating the overall crime figures.

The idea that each chief constable must submit weekly crime figures to a political master is reminiscent of the "zero tolerance" system in New York where weekly bulletins on individual precincts and even streets are compiled.

The plan has infuriated some chief constables who say the weekly audit is an extra burden on top of a series of new policy directives. One today reportedly complained that the prioritydemanded by the Government to combat street crime was diverting resources from other areas, such as burglary, and undermining local initiatives which earlier Home Office legislation had ordered forces to implement.

There is also said to be resentment about the operation of the new police Standards Unit at the Home Office which is run by Kevin Bond, a former police officer and Yorkshire Water chief executive, who has been described as "acting as chief constable" and undermining local police chiefs.

Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said the development "betrays a very worrying tendency" by the Government. He said David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, was already attempting to "nationalise" the police by taking new powers in the Police Reform Bill which has run into opposition in the House of Lords. "What this indicates is that the Government has been trying to find informal means of doing rather similar things.