A few years ago, I was encouraged to apply for a role within the College of Policing for an advisory body on a revamped code of ethics for police officers. When asked what sort of qualities the code should embody, my answer was succinct: ‘moral and physical courage.’ I didn’t make the cut, of course, and was sent a rejection letter that said the days of insolent corner boys like me were over, thanks very much.
I was put in mind of this yesterday when Reform announced its new agenda on crime and policing. The party’s leader Nigel Farage said that thousands of new police officers will fill the streets, paid for by cancelled bat tunnels and wind farms. He said that he would demand a ‘physically tougher’ standard of police officer, and Reform MP Sarah Pochin, who flanked Farage at the announcement, said she wanted to see more ‘great big, strapping male police officer[s]’. Reform wants to put the fear back into a criminal class who currently swagger about with impunity. Farage wants more rough men ready to do violence on our behalf, as Orwell nearly said.
I have some experience in doing violence on the state’s behalf. As a prison officer, then a volunteer police officer, I’ve had to go toe-to-toe with people bigger than me on more than one occasion. It is received wisdom to say that in these circumstances it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, more the fight in the dog. This is normally opined by people who have no concept of how chaotic and exhausting the use of force often is, but there is, a kernel of truth in it. An athletic female constable is more use than a fat male colleague.
Physicality is an essential part of policing, particularly when ‘problem solving’ fails. This side of the job is being wrecked by the meddling bureaucratic class who make officers think twice before intervening. I’m thinking of the ludicrous persecution of the Dorset officer who was sacked for gross misconduct for using ‘aggressive’ and unreasonable force in arresting a 15-year-old carrying a knife after a foot chase. PC Lorne Castle is now appealing this verdict after huge public outcry. Ordinary people, fed up with criminal impunity, saw his assertive actions on his bodycam as completely reasonable in the circumstances. Officers facing a physical threat to themselves or others are required to use words and actions to dominate and control the environment. It never looks or sounds pretty but it’s very often the one thing that stops a tense situation turning into a tragedy. If we don’t have officers who feel able to use these skills when required – because they fear their actions will be dissected by rear echelon bureaucrats in the comfort of their offices later – we are in trouble. Accountability cannot mean paralysis.
Farage’s off-the-cuff remarks will make the professional classes and the criminal justice commentariat wince, but they reflect the unravelling of the social contract between government and governed. Men and women with physical and moral courage are required more than ever.
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