PC Plod loses the plot

Oflife

Spot on. I wrote a huge comment, laying the blame for all this on one person, but to avoid a lawsuit (I have bashed him enough elsewhere), I removed the whole comment.

watttyler

well, what I would look for is a desire for the police to be de-politicized. until the police recognise that they need to protect the property of the citizen rather than the ideology of the Progressive/Marxist state, we will not be safe. look what they have defined as anti-social behaviour in the past. control by the use of powers also means arresting people for burning a koran.

Karin Berryman

Some of us here in Australia are viewing the degeneration of law and order as being another arrow in the quiver of socialists bent on reducing civilisation in the Western world. What hope could there be of Western democracies tolerating socialism unless law and order, economic viability and freedom and availability of choice is suppressed. Our ex-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been Foreign Minister for two weeks and already has promised a hundred and forty million in overseas aid to various third world nations. In the PM's office he has trashed a forty five billion dollar budget surplus to a roughly (transparency is extinct with our left wing politicians these days) sixty billion dollars deficit from Nov '07 till June '10 and nothing to be seen for it. Sorry for having a whinge, but there is an agenda with our socialist engineers, and the sooner we vocalise it the better!

Margaret Muller-Johansson

Also the police became leftists like anyone else in Britain.

Austin Barry

'The fact is that, over the past three decades or so, PC Plod has simply lost the plot. There have been many reasons for this: a denigration of policing street experience in favour of increasingly ideological academic qualifications as the criteria for promotion.'

Which brings to mind Inspector Truscott's line from Joe Orton's Loot (1965):

"Reading isn't an occupation we encourage among police officers. We try to keep paperwork down to a minimum."

Ah, those were the days...

Michael White

But on the plus side there's always spare time to be on the streets for special events:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8092108.stm

Nicholas

Karin Berryman - interesting post. In Britain we have experienced a socialist revolution achieved by stealth and masquerade which suborned the police to, in watttyler's words "the ideology of the Progressive/Marxist state". It has been successful because the mainstream right did not recognise the extent of the threat and were/are incapable of developing a cogent "narrative" to challenge it.

The result has been the seizure and occupation of much of the "establishment" by leftists. Post-election these remain and, although a minority in terms of our whole population, hold all the positions of power and influence within the civil service, academia and the arts (especially the BBC), as well as being a strong force in local government. These people, whilst pretending fluffy socialist or centre-left views, are actually the soft tissue protecting and promoting some fairly extreme and revolutionary changes to government, law, society and culture.

The result of the survival of this socialist power bloc is to be expected, a major offensive against the coalition government utilising quite extraordinary expressions of blatant leftist propaganda. The problem is that our coalition government still does not appear to recognise the enemy or to have any effective counter to its propaganda. They seem to prefer to continue with the delusion that Britain's struggle can be articulated in terms of old-fashioned party politics. Faced with the levels of destruction and malice already achieved and intended this approach is naive. Whilst accepting the government has a left-liberal ball and chain impeding it (and not just the Lib-Dems!) it is just not doing enough to disempower this surviving power bloc or to negate its influence.

roger

Here's the humanity we have lost. I knew policemen like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du5yQ9ZZGI4

GaryO

And in this time what has happened to the police budget? I'd hazard a guess that, even after discounting for inflation, it has shot through the roof!

The problem is not the police, many of who do sterling job in trying circumstances, but our governments, judiciary and academia. Since the late 60s the progressives have controlled these institutions and their actions has eroded our basic principles of good family values, parental responsibilities, taking responsibility for our own mistakes and the desire to preserve our culture and this to the progressive is "racist" talk, fit for BNP manifesto.

I believe it the progressives who are behind much of what is wrong with our society today. And for the fear of being called a "racist" no one is challenging this ideology.

Ricky

It all went pear shaped when Blunkett changed the police "force" into the police "service". From then on in they became fully signed up members of the social services. There soon followed various minority police associations, extensive diversity training and the hot pursuit of thought crimes inspired by a huge deluge of social crimes invented by New Labour & the Bruvvers. Whole swathes of Middle England became criminalised overnight and trapped in a Politically Correct nightmare, afraid to speak their minds, watching their words in Blair's new "intellectual gulag", criminalised by the socialist agenda. Meanwhile our police focused only on the needs of favoured minorities and the country grew more & more unloved and decadent. The Criminal Justice System was packed with socialist cronies and they did exactly what they do best - gave out Justice for Criminals.

Bob Hutton

The plods say they haven't got the resources to tackle anti-social behaviour yet they always seem to have the resources to harass Christians for expressing views that are not "politically correct".

In recent years we have seen a number of Christians arrested simply for expressing Biblical teaching on homosexuality. The latest example being that of Paul Shaw of Colchester who was yesterday cleared on "hate crime" charges.

Ian Parker

Oh, you're all so mean.

After all, crime rates keep falling; I know because the government tells me so.

Mjolnir de Jersiaise

The Police haven't completely fallen apart yet. One thing you can be sure of is that, if you successfully defend yourself against some street-thug the Police will be on you like a ton of bricks. So, not only have the government and Police left us to the mercy of the yobs, they have also taken away our right to defend ourselves...

Baron

Nicholas @ 9.37:

superb posting as ever except for this. It suits the major parties to see policing through the prism of party politics; they rather have the unwashed endure the yobbery than abandon the pseudo-liberal pap of moral equivalence, PC and stuff.

the unwashed may not be up to articulating it, yet the time seems ripe for a new political force if only to harness the brewing dissatisfaction of the impotent.

fedup

As you have most eloquently put it, the police force have been castrated and humiliated over many years by the intellectual elite, who themselves have been brainwashed over the same period by left leaning teachers and academics. Will we ever reach a point where these intellectuals survey the mayhem they have caused, and honestly confront the fact they have caused the persecution of those same people they have claimed to champion?

AngloWelshDragon

And we shall soon be 'celebrating' Halloween or National ASBO Day as it should be known. Elderly people and many others afraid to open the door, gangs of youths roaming the streets demanding money with menaces, eggs and flour thrown at cars and houses, wing mirrors and aerials snapped off, flower pots and tubs smashed. Deep joy.

Austin Barry

Melanie wrote this in the Daily Mail of 4 February 2009 in relation to an anti-Israel demo. in London when the police were chased by members of one of our more sensitive communities:

“Absurdly, the police claim they were ‘going backwards’ but not running away. But the video clearly shows the police retreating under fire, being chased through central London by protesters chanting ‘Allahu akhbar’ as they pelted officers with traffic cones and screaming ‘cowards’ and ‘they’re going to get it’.

As go their masters, so go the police.

Derek Pasquill

Sharia-compliant plods are too busy harrassing youths in Gateshead to worry about general mayhem on the streets.

One law for all not just for specially-favoured minorities.

Wily Trout

Thank you for setting this out in your usual clear-sighted way. I find the much-maligned Community Police Officers far more helpful, if even more powerless, than the police themselves who will only ever appear when there is nothing to be done. There is a deep-seated psychological comfort in the idea that if you are threatened you can jolly well call the police. Sadly it is an illusion often nowadays.

Norm

I stopped reporting petty crime and unsocial behaviour several years ago when police started making crime figures available on the internet. Anyone can check how many crimes have been reported street by street and I considered that a high level might affect the value of my property and reduce the chances of selling it in future. Also the younger yobs know the police have no powers to stop them.

Michael White

"Will we ever reach a point where these intellectuals survey the mayhem they have caused, and honestly confront the fact they have caused the persecution of those same people they have claimed to champion?"

A great point. I doubt it, however, otherwise it would already have happened - there are hundreds of examples of misery caused not just by the problem but by the system that has evolved to tackle it. More could be added but for starters take these examples. Each is a 'progressive' solution that actually fuels the flame:
more teen pregnancies = more sex education and social housing;
more criminals = fewer custodial sentences;
more radicals protesting = more understanding;
more migrants = more house building;
more drunkeness = longer pub times
more gamblers - more casinos

If any apology was likely it would already have come.

Ed

Yep, the policeman who whacked Ian Tomlinson was clearly a lion. And his superiors were definitely donkeys for protecting him.

Peter Jackson

Melanie,
you don't seem to understand that the police priority is to design themselves ever more slovenly uniforms, which, strangely, do not yet include the elbow patches usually associated with desk work

David Raynes

Bravo.

And 43 Constabularies in England & Wales is far too many. Too many top jobs, too many posh HQ buildings, in fact too many ranks as Officers climb the geasy pole.

Too much "overtime" in the culture of lower ranks, too much retirement of Officers in the prime of their professional life/experience to second jobs, in the higher ranks.

Some of these Shire constabularies have stayed much the same since before the invention of the telephone and certainly the motor car and radios.

The Conservative party has sadly set itself against radical change to the Constabularies.

When we talk about savings it should be Constabularies before Constables.

Honest Chief Constables know that and say that. The Head of ACPO says it. The government is not listening.

Ant

Over 30 years......just goes to show that both the Tories and Labour have messed up education and law and order. Out of touch elites the lot of them.

Trumpeter Lanfried

The Met Police (I can't speak for other forces) sometimes seems determined to antagonise the public.

Police stations, even in busy suburbs, are unmanned.

Even when the police station is open you can't just walk in and speak to the sergeant behind the counter. You have to wait behind a glass screen like a criminal until he condescends to buzz you in.

Intimidating body armour and high visibility clothing is everywhere (even at village fetes). The old, reassuring police helmets are seldom seen.

Powers of arrest (now universal) and handcuffs are employed as a matter of routine, even in cases where they are quite unnecessary. This is doubly objectionable when, as often happens, no charges are brought.

Police officers, using anti-terrorism laws, harass visitors photographing tourist landmarks such as Buckingham Palace.

Meanwhile, criminals who ought to be charged and prosecuted, are let off with a caution or given a fixed penalty notice. So it's probably cheaper to steal something from a shop than to leave your car on a yellow line.

john east

Hold on a minute. What you say is true, but you're putting the horse before the cart.

First we need another 50,000 prison places, then a complete overhaul of the courts, the CPS, the judiciary and the rest of the legal profession. Finally, human rights legislation needs to be repealed, and the compensation culture made unavailable to convicts.

Only when all of the above changes have been made is there any point joining the current hue and cry against the police. As things stand today it makes no difference how many anti-social yobs that the police arrest because no meaningful punishments or deterrents exist.

So what is the point of a police crackdown in the current climate?

Louis Berk

Tell me about it. In my neighbourhood, Camden, the police have a high profile local 'office' which is never manned during the week but magically comes to life when the weekend starts to cope with Camden weekends. If you want something done, they are happy to pass you on to somewhere else in the system where nothing gets done. Young men own the streets with their dangerous dogs and you can often get a bad headache from the endemic smell of cannabis. There are some highly suspicious Qhat dens in the area which undermine the environment but appear (even in these times of heightened security) to have little interest for the police. The local policing in Camden is a joke only made worse by the continuous shrieking of sirens as police cars tear down the road from Kentish Town Police station making damn sure perpertrators are fully alerted to their arrival so no confrontation can take place. So, HM Inspectorare of Police say the forces have abandoned the street? You don't say? Talk about being on Mastermind with the special subject of "stating the bleeding obvious". What are they or the government going to do about it?

George Steiner

I would have sympathy for your plight. But for the fact that when the British have the opportunity to vote, they vote for the same old.

TomTom

Police do not prevent crime. They decide what crime is and focus on what has most points

Drakken

You folks over the pond need to start arming yourselves, otherwise it's sheep to the slaughter, oh that's right, you already do. Thank God for the Second Amendment here. Good luck Brits, seems your going to need it.

Louis Berk

Drakken "you Brits need to start arming yourself" - that is now happening. The only problem is that it is the police and the criminals. So, there is an even greater likelihood of your average citizen ending up with holes in them.

Mike Jenkins

Another great article. Would you agree that the brutalisation and disintegration of our once civilised society is a direct result of the rejection of our Judaeo-Christian heritage, particularly by the ruling elite, in favour of a valueless morality that puts me first.

Sevo Slade

Switch the BBC over to paid subscription, and conscript the License Fee bounty hunters into the police force. They have a diligence and aggressiveness that can only be admired, were they not employed by such a self-serving corporation.

Stephen Green

When I first practiced in the Magistrates Courts (50 years ago!)antisocial behavior was dealt with by the police effectively.
Why?
Because the offending party was placed in custody overnight and brought before the Stipendary Magistrate the following morning. Provided there were no special reasons to the contrary the case was dealt with that day.
In most cases the prosecution was conducted by a police seargent and no lawyers were involved on either side.
Legal Aid was available for the accused if that was required and barristers were available free of charge to deal with the case there and then.
Occasionaly an adjournment would granted if the defence so requested and could demonstrate genuine need.
Now the Crown Prosecution Service is involved and nearly all cases including those where there is a guilty plea do not reach court for several weeks. Invariable there will be adjournments and delays and the time demands on the police will be quite disproportianate to the seriousness of the crime.
Is it any suprise that the police have given up the task bearing in mind the unreasonable bureaucratic demands that are placed upon them.
Some may say that in the past it was rough justice. Maybe but it is significant that on the day of the retirement of the Stipenary Magistrate before whome I used to regularly appear (Bancroft -Turner) that the barrow boys of Manchester, who were freqent visitors to his court, attended en masse to present him with a bouquet of flowers to mark the occasion.
Rough justice? May be on some occasions but justice none the less.

anne allan

This chimes in with a conversation I had today while out canvassing. Elderly man with a disabled wife who uses a motorised scooter. They have lived in their house for thirty plus years and have become angry about the 'acceptable' low level crime; swearing, drinking in playgrounds, burnt hedges, vandalised rubbish and dog bins etc.... All they want is a police presence.
Our local MP's contribution to this debate is to blame motorised scooter users as a menace.

Terry Woods

The impotence of the police is no accident; it’s just one more tool of the Cultural Marxists and carefully planned that way. Dictator Lenin did the same, he made the police useless, and deliberately let law and order get out of control for a purpose, so that when things were truly diabolical, he could then rush in and remove all freedoms under the guise of “restoring law and order”. As we know, once those basic freedoms are all gone, they are very hard to regain without a lot of bloodshed in the process and this is the road we are on at present with our police and society being encouraged to collapse internally and portrayed as if it’s some accident, when in reality it’s been planned by the Cultural Marxist for many decades.

Alex Bensky

Ah, you all fail to understand.

The true cause of crime is inequality, poverty...unhappiness, frustration, unrequited love, and the rain. People are helpless automatons who only commit crime because of these factors. Thus, until all these factors can be eliminated you can hardly expect people not to commit crimes and in fact, running them in and--I shudder--punishing them is only blaming the victim. All we need to do is completely reorder society and then the motivation for crime will disappear as it crime couldn't possibly be due to individual choice or response.

Until then we have to regard crime as a socially progressive form of protest. And if people therefore are insecure in their persons or their homes, well, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.

GeoffM

Many police spokesmen say what a great job they are doing. Labour keeps banging away about how crime "statistics" have improved under their rule.

The reality is that 30 years ago policemen walked the streets alone and without stab vests, pepper spray and tazers. SWAT style armed response teams were virtually unheard of.

I think that says it all about how the safety of our streets has changed.

How long will it be before we are ALL wearing stab vests and carry weapons to protect ourselves? Already where I live, a semi-rural North Worcestershire town, people are putting up gates to their properties, fitting expensive security alarms and drive their children everywhere due to the presence of criminals operating from inner Birmingham and feral yobs from the social housing "projects".

I fear that before long we will live in secure estates like those found in the American south, Dominican Republic and South Africa.

Thank you - ALL you politicians for enriching our country so.

kate b

Correct again.

Although the smaller number of police would actually be sufficient if our kids were taught the moral absolutes from our own cultural book which has worked for millenia. Those of us who do teach our kids that there are absolutes and consequences are confused when they see those who persistently cross the line are rewarded.

One rule for all and all equal under one law, that's from our cultral book. They're only taught one week of this at school, but six months for another ideology was taught, however, there was a lot of grumbling, and only one complaint.....from me. Aahh, diversity.

Louis Berk

Stephen Green - an illuminating description of how our police force and the law used to work. I was recently involved in dealing with an incident involving the violent attack of a young person by another identified young person. It took the police approximately 2 months to actually go around and arrest the alleged attacker, even though they were known. When I inquired several times during the delay about what was happening I was informed that there were only 3 officers available to deal with this type of crime in the area and each had a case load of about 100 crimes. What is worse, under existing protocols an officer must document activity every 10 days, e.g. a phone call, letter, visit to the victim etc. You do the math - 100 cases, the necessity to stop and document each one every 10 days - no wonder they have no time for the street. This is the legacy of the Labour belief in target setting - you have to proove you are meeting your targets but workload turns it into your primary activity. No wonder young children are killed by their parents and victims set fire to themselves in their cars out of frustration with the system.

Of course, since the arrest I have heard nothing but I assume that the case may come to court some time this decade.

James Healey

As a police officer, I appreciate my opinion is biased - but I can't help feeling the comments on this post show a completely unrealistic level of expectation. Yes, low level antisocial behaviour is vastly more prevalent than it was 30 years ago, but that has nothing to do with police retreating from the streets, it's because standards of personal behaviour are completely different. When I was a child, any adult in the street would tick off a group of kids being rowdy on the way home from school. And those kids would be embarrassed and moderate their behaviour. Nowadays, those kids wouldn't be being rowdy, they'd be screaming abuse and obscenities, fighting, throwing stones at cars and smoking cannabis, and no one would dare speak to them for fear of getting beaten up or stabbed. This is a result of changing norms in society, and nothing to do with policing. It would therefore be virtually impossible to deal with it under any circumstances, but as it is, the problem is even more difficult than it would or should be, due to the lack of support the police receive from the public at large. Your article suggests policing was better in the past, but experience shows the general public does not want the police of 30 years ago. How do you think your average 1980's copper would react to some 15 year old thug saying "fuck off you pussyhole" to him? (as happened to me on Wednesday) Yup, a one way ticket to A&E with some serious facial injuries. Nowadays, with vieo cameras on every mobile phone, a police officer risks his job and his liberty every time he raises his hand. Witness Ed at 2.00pm:

"Yep, the policeman who whacked Ian Tomlinson was clearly a lion. And his superiors were definitely donkeys for protecting him."

Because obviously, in 1980 no policeman would use a single baton strike and push a drunk, foul mouthed idiot who'd been hanging around a violent street protest for at least 2 hours and was deliberatly obstructing the police!!
Mjolnir de Jersiaise suggests the police target those who defend themselves from criminals, but how many people actually get convicted in these circumstances? The very few cases there are get given completely disproportionate amounts of media coverage and usually involve levels of force that the courts (yes, courts convict people, not the police) cannot equate with self defence. The fact is the police are generally very much on the side of those that stand up to criminals - it is the police themselves who get hounded for daring to infringe the human rights of little billy burglar. Trumpeter Lanfried moans about handcuffs being used unnecessarily.......trust me, you really aren't ready for 1980's style policing!!

TC

Its very easy to blame the police, but what of the courts? How do you think PC Plod feels having arrested some individual, spent hours processing paperwork, collating evidence etc only to have the CPS drop it because they can't be bothered or have lost thwe file, or if it goes to court they are given a community sentence? e.g. those two blokes in London who kicked a guy unconcious for no reason, celebrated as they thought they'd killed him, and got non-custodial community sentences. How do think PC Plod feels when he sees them walk free not giving a toss?

The police are an easy target, but if the courts did their job, representing the people rather than leftie lawyers, there would be a much greater impact.

Lyeemoon

Stephen Green - I was part of that police system almost 50 years ago and you're spot on. Nothing like a bit of instant justice to concentrate even the feeblest mind!

too old to die young

Very interesting comments especially from Louis Berk and James Healey. Here in Cambridge things are not as quiet as dreaming spires may imply.
In the last few weeks Ive started to smell skunk again after a year or two of not really noticing it all.
Ive seen kids in cars smoking spliffs, canal boats smelling of it guys openly smoking on the street and by the river in broad daylight, asking to be seen, they just dont care. One guy at a pub said cycle round a couple of times and I'll tell you if your pupils are dilating afterwards.
its getting difficult to breathe officer is there anything you can do?
well the last time i asked about drug crime in public spaces i got told to write a letter to the chief constable. i thought by the time i write the letter their stash will be sold or another man standing up to drugs overlords will be dead and the judge will as before let the perpetrators of a cowardly but well planned crime off as not even manslaughter---so why bother?
what is the point anymore?
well i guess this man made the mistake of taking on criminals by himself although very strong was overtaken by guile of two men but still the courts should not condone the calculated killing of a man, they had a plan and it worked he was efficently killed by one blow inthe right direction from another strong man this is not uncommon ive heard of it before.
One man held him while the other delivered the blow and that was it done. now how can you say that was planned premeditated murder? The judge claimed it was self defence.
So if the judge was placed in the same position what would he do? would he realise and admit that this pre meditated and would in anyway help his predicament. Benhazir Bhutto did a similar thing let out the crooks and terrorists and then they killed her...see it doesnt really work does it! Not even for liberals.

Peace Man! (and dont breathe)

Dipper

I don't recognise this picture. In our village we have police who know all the trouble makers and keep order. We had some problems with drunken youths at a few pubs on a bank holiday and had 7 police cars here closing the pubs and restored order. We had some burglaries and they found the culprits and nicked them. Policing as it should be.

Nicholas

James Healey - why cherry pick the 1980's in 170 years of policing history as a comparison to today? It makes me wonder how old you are.

"This is a result of changing norms in society, and nothing to do with policing." Really? And which came first, the chicken or the egg? The police must bear a considerable burden of responsibility both for the lawlessness and disorder on our streets and for the lack of respect in which they are now generally held.

Disarmed Victim

James Healey - As a police officer, wouldn’t you agree that in light of the changing norms in society that the public are better off with firearms legalised?

Nowadays, my own (low) opinion of the police is that despite making themselves appear omniscient and omnipotent (through CCTV, etc) when it comes to maintaining law and order, is that the police are not there when you need them the most at the end of the day.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of keeping the public disarmed and dependent on the police for protection, as well as being a waste of money while the police meet government targets (along with spending their days buying luxury cars like BMWs and Subaru’s).

If the public were armed, while it may not totally protect people from thugs, it would make thugs think twice before when targeting a potential victim because after all, that would-be “victim” may possibly be a “Tony Martin” and end up not being worth the effort.

It is certainly better then how things are at the moment, with the disarmed public being seen by thugs as wallets or punch bags with legs.

The alternative I will leave to your imagination.

James Healey

Nicholas - I cherry picked the 1980's because Melanie's article centered around the Chief Inspector of Constabulary's report that the police had retreated from the streets in the last 30 years (i.e. since 1980) I'm sure my argument holds true the further back you go. And I'm 36 since you wondered.
I totally disagree with:
"And which came first, the chicken or the egg? The police must bear a considerable burden of responsibility both for the lawlessness and disorder on our streets..."
Behaviour, manners and sense of right and wrong, are instilled primarily by parents, with heavy influences also coming from extended family, school & school teachers, and other community influences e.g. churches, youth groups, cubs/scouts etc. What impact do the police have on most people's upbringing? I can well understand the public's frustration at the inability of the police to control thuggish/anti-social behaviour, (my moped got smashed up by vandals at the station carpark this week - £285 to fix - no one arrested) but I stick to my original argument that it's unrealistic to expect the police to fix what is in fact a general shifting in acceptable standards of behaviour. I'm not suggesting it isn't the responsibility of the police to deal with lawlessness, disorder and criminality, it is. But the police are only ever reacting to these things. The fact that the incident has occurred, shows there is a problem; the fact that there are so many more "problems" these days, is not a result of the police retreating from the streets and leaving a vacuum for the yob to fill, it's a result of there being many more yobs around.
As to whether the police are responsible for the lack of respect in which they are now held - that's a whole different argument. I think they (we) certainly must bear much of the responsibilty, but then 13 years of New Labour target culture, political correctness, health and safety/human rights obsession, the triumph of policy over common sense and general left wing nonsense has hardly helped!!

Nicholas

James Healey thank you for the clarification. I don't disagree with your analysis but I think, understandably, you are rather down-playing the police contribution to the current situation. You write of only being able to react to crime and disorder which betrays perhaps an unwitting acknowledgement of the way police have abandoned the original concept of watch and ward policing - the visible deterrent of police patrols on foot across a comprehensive beat system over the 24 hour period. Those do not exist in the form deployed up to the late 1960's and are largely scorned by British police decision makers these days. It makes me wonder just what "expertise" the Home Office is exporting to countries with emergent police forces.

Whereas in fact those countries with strong police forces which have persisted with this traditional approach, even faced with the same changes in society you catalogue, are more successful in countering crime and disorder. Just by being visibly present and vigilant they are not conceding the streets. And visible presence does not mean a couple of PC's or Community Officers traversing the busiest part of town on market days, it means a network of patrolled beats and tiered deployment (foot patrols co-ordinated with mobile patrols, dog handlers and task forces) which cover every urban area throughout the 24 hours/7 days period.

And if you respond that there is not the manpower to accomplish this then I will challenge back that the decision makers have their priorities wrong. Forming dedicated units to pursue homophobic "hate" crimes, for example, whilst urban beats are not properly covered is indicative of police decision makers who do not understand what the purpose of policing really is. They are responding to politically motivated cherry picking rather than the broader law and order needs of the communities they are responsible to. But perhaps this touches firmly on your last paragraph?

Another aspect is that the principle of the constable's discretion has gradually been eroded and undermined, whereby top down directives, targets and bureaucratic procedures trump the exercise of discretion by individual police officers. This in turn has led to police officers who are much less effective, less confident, who follow a limited set of actions and appear unwilling to make decisions alone, blighted also by what appears to be a staggering ignorance of the law.

I think it was a serious mistake to give uniformed officers the responsibility for the investigation of "minor" crime. Again, those countries which have maintained a distinction between the work of uniformed policing and criminal investigation tend to be more successful in the control of crime and disorder. It is just not possible to reconcile the requirement to put men and women in uniform on the streets with the need to follow up and investigate specific, reported offences. Inevitably both will suffer and that is precisely what has happened.

Kennybhoy

Alex Bensky @ September 25th, 2010 8:34pm:

As succinct, insightful and blackly humorous a summary of left-liberal philosophy on this subject as I have read. Respect sir.

Baron

where do we have serious, structural, long lasting problems? In three domains: education, law and order, health delivery. Can you spot the common denominator? Yap, all three domains are publicly owned under the stewardship of a bunch of pseudo-liberal do-gooders backed by Parliamentary statutes that feel noble, heart warming and compassionate, but in real life make things worse rather than better.

take the example of hand gun ownership raised by Disarmed Victim @ 11.43. Banning the weapons was supposed to cut gun related crime. It did just the opposite. It took over 40 years for gun crime to get to some 4,000 incidents pa; after the ban in 1997, it took only another seven years for the level to double to over 8,000 cases pa. It has gone up some more since. Yet one doesn’t hear even a whisper of criticism of the 1997 Firearms Act. Why?

the idiocy of measuring crime by proxy extends beyond the edge of the ridiculous – the number of police on the street, the number of arrests, prosecutions, convictions, prison places, you name it, those in charge come up with it. It seems to have never occurred to any of the political garden gnomes that the great unwashed don’t give a toss about any of it. One can live with few police officers on the street, fewer arrests, prosecutions and stuff provided crime doesn’t flourish.

doubling the number of police officers has no bearing on crime levels if the officers focus on paper work, attend anti this and anti that classes, or chase morons burning books. Similarly, initiating more prosecutions fails to cut crime if the courts continue handing out laughable sentences.

And another thing: James Healey: you’re getting it right; any chance of you getting promoted to the rank of Chief Constable? I’ll vote for you.

Kennybhoy

James Healey wrote:

"..and no one would dare speak to them for fear of getting beaten up or stabbed."

Or arrested..?

w.stevenson

If the police are going to permit street yobbery andthuggery to go unchecked its time the law of this land permitted the general public to protect itself from these idiots instead of being hurted by having their hands tied by law.If the police are going to sit at desks, halve their salary or are they just going to chase motorists for the making of TV programmes.