These largely meaningless occasions see police, community leaders and experts assemble in Downing Street, to be photographed with the Prime Minister and Home Secretary nodding earnestly, before being sent away with the promise of yet another Whitehall-driven initiative.

Ministers enjoy being associated with so-called crackdowns but, as the new report from the Reform think-tank makes clear, playing politics with crime can have damaging effects on the ground.

All three major parties have begun to acknowledge the problem through policies which would, to varying degrees, aim to devolve more power over policing. Reform's proposals would go much further and, while this enthusiasm for giving communities a greater say is welcome, a degree of caution is required.

Publishing reams of statistics on local crime may help people better understand what is happening in their street, but it is a thirst for figures which has fuelled the paperwork that plagues the working lives of police officers.

The corollary of local policy-making also means that the approach to crimefighting will differ in each part of the country. Would it be acceptable, for example, for drug users to be cautioned in one region when the same offence would result in a court appearance in another area?

Most importantly of all, governments must justify their actions at elections. Any move to devolve control over policing, the courts and even prisons must be accompanied by a radical overhaul of local government that ensures far more democratic accountability than that offered by police authorities.

The heavy hand of Whitehall, particularly its enthusiasm for abstract targets, has undoubtedly hindered the police when it comes to responding to the needs of their communities, just as it has in the case of schools and hospitals. The acid test for any reform must be whether it will help the police to cut crime because it is that, rather than who makes the decisions, which most concerns voters.