Kevin Hurley

To save black lives, police top brass must face reality

The best young officers are giving up

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I was a borough commander in west London and come from a long line of officers — and I can tell you that it’s fast becoming impossible to police the streets. The police are attacked on all sides. They’re told both that they’re too aggressive and too politically correct; too understanding and too intolerant. They’re required to reduce the level of violent crime on the street and yet told they’re racist if they stop and search young black men and ‘put hands in pockets’ to check for knives.

As a society we can shout and scream at the police, regulate them, scrutinise them, sack a few, bring in external bosses from industry. We can try to ‘re-educate’ them and have an independent complaints system. But unless we look clearly at the real problems street constables and junior detectives face every day, our cities will soon be lawless.

The first thing to understand is that the ‘police’ are not a homogenous group. A response police officer in inner London has little in common with the commissioner or her senior officers, save that they wear a similar uniform. While both groups want to think they are making a difference, the chiefs will be thinking of long-term strategies, managing budgets, building relationships with other government bodies. Occasionally they will be diverted into thinking about some fast-moving issue such as a terrorist event or newspaper criticism of the handling of a major inquiry.

Once dealing with dynamic events is no longer their daily business, police chiefs can forget what it’s like to be a superintendent or inspector. They want good press and they become calculating and political in pursuit of the top job.

The street cops generally come from fairly good homes. Most have decent educations. A lot of them nowadays have been to university or have done a variety of jobs before they joined, from infantrymen in Afghanistan to nurses or restaurant managers.

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