British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged Sunday a "zero tolerance" crackdown on street gangs after recent riots, fuelling a row with police over plans for the US "supercop" behind the tough strategy.
Police chiefs criticised Cameron's decision to hire ex-New York police supremo Bill Bratton in a bid to prevent a repeat of the violence in which five people died, saying a home-grown policy would be better. "We haven't talked the language of zero tolerance enough, but the message is getting through," Cameron told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
A four-day frenzy of looting and arson in London and other major English cities has sparked a nation-wide debate on the causes and possible responses, with just a year to go until the capital hosts the 2012 Olympics.
The Conservative premier accused some people of over-complicating explanations for simple criminality but admitted that underlying social factors including "deeply broken and troubled families" had to be addressed. Interior minister Theresa May backed Cameron, saying the public wanted "tough action".
Bratton himself, however, said zero tolerance is "a phrase I hate".
"I would not advocate attempting zero tolerance in any country. It's not achievable. It implies you can eliminate a problem and that's not reality," Bratton wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Instead the expert, who is credited for tackling gang violence in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, listed a raft of measures including understanding how gangs work and using injunctions to curb their activities.
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