WIDDECOMBE DOUBT ON TOUGH POLICING

Rudolf Guiliani, New York's fearsome republican mayor who is credited
with reducing the city's crime rate, will meet his match later this
week when Ann Widdecombe storms into town to study his "zero
tolerance" initiative.

The shadow home secretary, whose public profile has slipped in recent
months, will tomorrow visit the New York police's "Model Block"
project which has successfully reduced crime rates by refusing to
tolerate the slightest of misdemeanours. Championed by Mr Giuliani,
the project has become known as "broken windows" because police have
found that serious crimes have fallen when officers concentrate on
apparently trivial crimes such as broken windows.

Miss Widdecombe will kick off her trip in Washington today when she
goes out on patrol with the DC Metro Police just outside the centre of
the city. Before she flew to New York last night, the shadow home
secretary was forced to admit that she would struggle to copy Mayor
Giuliani's "zero tolerance" policy because even she would be unable to
muster the necessary numbers of police. New York has seen its police
numbers increase by 11,000 in recent years.

Asked whether zero tolerance would work in Britain, she told
the BBC's Westminster Hour: "It would be very difficult
indeed just to come up with a pledge for that level of
policing. I am going to see if there is anything we can
learn, but I do not go there with a presumption that we can
copy what Mayor Giuliani has done." Miss Widdecombe hopes to
use Mayor Giuliani's success to step up the pressure on the
home secretary over police numbers. Jack Straw has faced
embarrassment after police numbers dropped.

Miss Widdecombe is following a path that has been well-trodden by
Tories in recent years. Jeffrey Archer visited Mayor Giuliani during
his ill-fated campaign to become London mayor. William Hague also
travelled to the US last year to try and find inspiration from George
W Bush.