Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has thanked police and vowed that Labour will continue to be the party that is tough on crime.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool she also praised officers who performed their duties in the recent riots.
In a rousing speech she vowed that the opposition will always be "tough on crime" and "tough on the causes of crime."
She said: "Thank you to Paul McKeever from the Police Federation for speaking to us today.
"For many years when our Party has gathered, we have heard from nurses, teachers, business leaders, scientists, athletes and thanked them all for the work they do.
"But until this year, we have never heard from the police, the people who work tirelessly to protect our communities. We pay tribute to them now.
"To the officers who respond to the 999 call, no idea what they will find when they arrive, or whether they will return home safe at the end of their shift.
"The officer who explains to a teenager that carrying a knife means his own life is in danger.
"Or the eight riot police who stood on St John’s Road in Clapham Junction that August night as 350 rioters swarmed towards them down Lavender Hill.
"We will not always agree with the police and Labour Ministers have had disagreements with the Police Federation in the past.
"But our party believes strongly in respect for the police, and in backing the work they do.
"So we say thank you through Paul to police officers up and down the country who work so hard to keep us safe.
Yvette then went on to pledge support to Ed Milliband describing him as showing "strong" leadership in the wake of the Milly Dowler phone hacking scandal and the riots.
And she cited personal stories of victims of crime to highlight the importance of battling crime.
She told party members: "We know in the Labour Party how much it matters to cut crime.
"This summer Ed Miliband showed strong leadership in response to the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone and the awful August riots.
"Ed has talked about the importance of responsibility and respect, and the quiet crisis for families across Britain when things go wrong.
"Take the Yorkshire mother whose family I spoke to after her house was burgled.
"In the statistics it’s a routine crime. There are over half a million similar crimes each year.
"She wasn’t threatened or hurt, she didn’t even see the burglars, she was upstairs asleep with her children.
"Yet the impact on her life is immense. Now she can’t sleep. She jumps at every noise, every creak, every child’s cough. The laptop they stole had the family photos on. They stole her car keys and her car so she’s missed work.
"Crime hurts. The burglary that destroys someone’s confidence.
"The stalking and harassment that means a women is too scared to leave home.
"The abuse that bruises a child’s face and poisons his whole future.
"That’s why Labour was right to work so hard to cut crime, to keep people safe and secure, and why we must do so again."
And she added: "If we’d said before the 1997 election that under Labour crime would fall by 40% no one would have believed it could be done.
"But we did. Tough on crime. Tough on the causes of crime.
"Labour the party of Law and Order and that is how we will stay. "
thomas gibbon, essex around 7 months, 4 weeks ago