‘The police can’t do it alone’: head of police watchdog on how to cut crime

HM chief inspector Andy Cooke says multi-agency approach is needed to cut poverty and increase opportunities

The best way to stop people becoming criminals is to reduce poverty, target prevention strategies at young people, and increase opportunity, his majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary has said.

Sir Andy Cooke, who is preparing to leave his post and retire after 40 years in policing, told the Guardian that his decades of experience taught him that crime was a “symptom of deeper societal failures”.