David Blackburn

Cameron lands Supercop as police acrimony mounts

Internationally renowned policeman Bill Bratton has agreed to advise the government on how to defeat gang culture. Bratton’s role is not official, but he will arrive for duty in the autumn nonetheless.

The former LA police chief has already offered a diagnosis of Britain’s problems. In an interview with the Telegraph, he says that hoodlums have been “emboldened” by timid policing and lenient sentencing. Quite what this means for Ken Clarke’s justice policy, supported by the Liberal Democrats, remains to be seen. But the indications are that the government will bolster its law and order policies. Doubtless a wry smile will have broken across the face of Andy Coulson, who warned that it would be so from the outset.

Meanwhile, the tension between the government and the police has broken into open antipathy. The Times has a full account (£), but here are a few choice quotations. Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Tim Godwin chastised ministers: “I think after any event like this, people will always make comments who weren’t there.” Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, said it was “disingenuous of politicians to say that they [had] sorted the problems out.” The Times also quotes a senior riot officer warning that budget cuts and political posturing mean that “we cannot trust ministers any more. Frankly I don’t know how we’re going to deal with these [rioters] in the future.” Finally, Boris Johnson took a swipe at the government yesterday, scoffing that anyone can have “20:20 hindsight about what decisions could have been taken”, a fair point but one that overlooks his own indecision during this affair.

The police are scrapping to contain the reputational damage caused by their inadequate initial response to the riots. But, as I wrote yesterday, this unedifying squabble is just one front in the wider confrontation between police and government over budget cuts, innovations and a reform programme to break essentially unionised police organisations. Even the politically pugilistic Iron Lady shied from engaging the police, recognising that her radical government could not function amid mass public disorder. It will be very interesting to see how Cameron’s man, Bratton, is received by increasingly intransigent forces.

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