The police no longer have the public's confidence

Peeler

It is not only a 'lack of confidence', it is a positive distrust of the police which for many people has tipped into an outright loathing. And the beauty of it is that the police have brought this entirely upon themselves. As the police these days are overly anxious to become political, to meddle in political debate and to base policing decisions on political preferences, then it is wholly appropriate that senior police chiefs should be elected and accountable to the people they are meant to serve and protect.

JR

James - I've made this remark elsewhere but I think it's worth repeating.

Living in London (Stockwell) I see lots of policy on the street, many more than I used to.

Also for a supposedly high crime area I've never had any trouble at my property (a flat) or on the streets. I don't feel in fear either.

From the evidence of my own experience I don't agree that you see the police on the streets less. Or indeed do I have less faith in the police where I live.

Finally in my view a marginal increase in the police on the beat would make very little if any difference to crime in my area - I would prefer any efficiency savings (of which there may well from reducing targets) were either passed back to the taxpayer or invested in evidence based high value rehabatilation services.

Unless I've missed something the country isn't going to the dogs, at least not in my neighourhood.

Dave B

You have some typos in this story:
'you see then police' ??
'many of the crimes that worry the police most' ???

Just FYI.

Nick Wood

The one word I would use to describe the police is arrogant. They no longer seem interested in establishing the rights and wrongs of a given situation, merely concerned about how many convictions they can get for their target - and to hell with justice. Why would anyone support a police system where the innocent are so often punished simply because its easier than finding out the truth?

Colin

We don't have confidence in them because they are no longer on our side.

The reason's they are no longer on our side in my view are:

1. The target culture means that going after soft targets yields better results for them.

2. Too many officers have been let loose on the public without adequate training or the skills.

3. Too many serious crimes are no longer considered worthy of attention. For example, credit card fraud, common assault, car crime and crimes against other types of property.

It doesn't help that our clown of a home secretary apparently wants to introduce a target to solve the problem.

Purge ACPO of the social engineers.

Stamp down on prevalent offences on a local level- it's obvious to all what they are.

Puncheon

Welcome to the real world. I lived in London 50 years ago and the Met were a disgrace then - the laws of libel prevent me from giving more detail. In the provinces the police have been regarded as a bunch of sciving shysters for as long as anyone can remember. They long ago discovered that it's much easier to persecute law abiding citizens going about their lawful business than tackling the criminal class going about theirs. I agree that we need to make Chief Constables elected, but also we need to get rid of all the assistant chief constables, just office politicians, and abolish ACPO, which is an entrenched anti-social trades union.

mckenzie

I come from North Wales and I can't wait to see what the infamous Mad Mullah Brunstrom will do to regain public confidence. He seems to go out of his way to appear controversial, and do his best to wind up ordinary law abiding people. The latest controversy, which saw many letters in the local rag, was to fly a gay rainbow flag on top of the Sty HQ.

Kevyn Bodman

60 per cent seems a very unambitious target.
The solution is easy.
Get highly visible policemen on the streets;they should be seen many times a day by anyone going about his lawful business they reassure law-abiding citizens and deter a lot of potential defenders.
There are two groups of people in Britain, the law-abiding and the non-law-abiding.
The police should *never* be even-handed in their dealings between the two.
Of course we also need to change the mind-set of politicians, and remove the current government, who see us all as potential suspects and enemies if we are in the least bit dissentient towards them.
Dissidence is not crime.

All the above is obvious.

Don

The police have lost the respect of the public because they now only ever interact with them in adversarial events. The introduction of PCSO's has been an unmitigated disaster. They are very limited in what they can do, yet they are disguised as real police officers. so the run of the mill day to day interaction is between you and a scarecrow dressed as a policman. the only time you will interact with a policeman is when he is conducting some action that is driven by targets, speeding, section 5, mobile phone use etc. so why is anyone remotely surprised by this finding.

Brian

The reason the police have lost our confidence is not entirely their fault. Subsequent governments have nodded through laws enacted in Strasburg which are often at odds with the British expectation of what a law should be, firstly passed by and scrutinised by Parliament, and then passed to the Judiciary so that they can make it work.
Strasburg has no concept of for instance 'precedent', where an interpretation of the existing law is adhered to in subsequent instances: it applies it as it feels fit, with the result that these non-judges end up making the law instead of merely applying it. The resultant mish-mash and confusion is passed along to the police and others, who attempt not only to try and make sense of it, but to protect their own backs in case of unexpected compensation claims resulting from crackpot Human Rights laws.
The police will continue to have our mistrust as long as this much hated EU monster survives.

salieri

"Require all police forces to reach a 60 percent level of confidence "?? How is this ridiculous new target to be measured (let alone achieved)? And why 60%?

This is mere tinkering with paperwork, a dishonest evasion of responsibility for imposing political priorities and criteria on the police - hate crimes, thought crimes, filling in forms, and prosecuting middle-class motorists.

Btw, whenever I see the results of these infantile "surveys" I recall that no-one ever asked me.

Steve.W

I'm not at all surprised to hear that most people have no confidence in the police. It's no longer a public service, as self service is the name of the game.

Peeler's got it right with -

“not only a 'lack of confidence', it is a positive distrust of the police which for many people has tipped into an outright loathing. And the beauty of it is that the police have brought this entirely upon themselves”.

Take for example the crazy idea that it should be made illegal to photograph a policeman, that's nothing to do with 'security' or a worthwhile part of the Prevention of Terrorism Act but simply a bit of ACPO malevolence.

Stewart

I agree with Peeler here. I would add that the police are so obsessed with bullying anyone who insults one of New Labour's key demographic groups that they give off the impression of not caring about the victims of serious crime. Furthermore, we all know where the Met's sympathies lie. Witness the kid gloves with which radical environmentalist and Islamist protesters are treated on the streets of London with the truncheon-fest that greeted the Countryside Alliance march a few years back. Can anyone seriously imagine lines of policemen clubbing violent members of a stop the war protest in central London? After the 7/7 bombings senior met and home office officials (And former mayor Livingstone) were so busy falling all over themselves to absolve Islam and Muslims of any culpability that they nearly forgot the victims and their families. It is PR blunders like this and the failure to make immediate arrests for incitement to violence at the protests at the Danish embassy over the cartoons of Mohammed and the many cases that make the front pages of the Express and Daily Mail that (Grannies arrested over non payment of council tax, harrassed neighbours arrested for standing up to yobbish louts, children being warned not to draw hopscotch squares on the pavement) that lead to the police being mistrusted. There is also sense that there is one law for the rich and famous and one for everyone else. Granted this perception exists in most countries and is probably more of a reality in many other less democratic countries but it exists nonetheless.

Verity

Brian nails it. Strasbourg judgements go against the natural justice on which our English Common Law is based.

We don't want to adjust our thinking.

CharleyRay15

A comment in the DT last week summed it up. A contributor describing himself as a middle aged, middle class, law-abidding, white male stated that if he saw a police car upside down in a field with its wheels still spinning he wouldn't stop his car! How did things get to this?

Fergus Pickering

When I actually talk to policemen, apart from one silly racist arsehole I met on a bus, I find them straightforward pleasantly and free from certain sorts of crap personified by the plod Blair. This leads me to conclude that the problem is at the top. Sack the Blairtype guys at the top. Replace them with the sort of guys WE want, which does not include Muslims spoiling for a fight, and things will improve.

JR

My experience when actually speaking to policemen is more along the lines of Fergus'. Apart from one (who I think was a jumped up special) they've all been fine and whilst it's a bit annoying getting stop and searched coming into Victoria sometimes its fine.

I'd be interested inthe other commentors actual experience of the police - there seems to be a lot of criticism but no personal experiences??