The Police are warning of a ‘Summer of Rage’ and redundancies in the Police.
Don’t come looking for sympathy round here until you do two things-
1- Wind up up the little scam called ACPO which is a private company designed to provide well paid admin jobs and raise a lot of Cash.
2- Each Chief Constable stands for election on his or her record.
The police have gone from being a community service operating on Peelian Police Principles to a paramilitary flying squad armed with guns,tasers,pepper spray and a bad attitude of late.
To recap-
1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
Statements attributed to Peel
* Every police officer should be issued a badge number, to assure accountability for his actions. (I wonder what Hartshorn’s badge number is ?)
* Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime.
* Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel’s most often quoted principle: The police are the public and the public are the police.
So we have had all the smart alec TV programmes, traffic cops, Helicops etc etc, how about cops that are known and living in Police houses in the community.That are funded seperately from central Government, but by local taxation.I live in a small town on the somerset coast. There is a Police station that is permanently closed, but always has a Police riot van parked outside with six police cars, I often have the urge to bang on the door, and tell them to come outside and start interacting with the locals, instead of shuffling bits of paper around.
Succesive Governments have played around with Law and Order for years, this current lot have made the situation far worse with passing three thousand new Laws in ten years. By feeding ‘benefits’ to vast swathes of the population, they have been infantalised. No longer knowing how to behave responsibly and ethically, and this goes for Bankers as much as it does for the bloated underclass.
So not a penny more on Policing until it stops wanting to play Starsky and Hutch, and
starts acting as if it is part of society not a detached paramilitary arm of the State.
OH Comment: An effective Police Force should only EVER be judged by the ABSENCE of crime.