The Sunday Post: An Ordinary Copper
The Bobby on the Beat – the evocative vision of British policing politicians are prone to promoting in speeches whilst simultaneously scything away at the funding that enable this reassuring figure to patrol the highways and byways of Albion. Since the Con-Dem Government came to power five years ago, the police forces of Britain have suffered as much as any public service; the NHS may have a monopoly on collective sentimentality in the minds of the people, but take a look at the figures for Old Bill.
In short, 16,000 police officers and 18,000 staff axed since 2010; 12% fewer officers since 2010; almost a fifth of forces shed of more than 10% of officers between 2010 and 2012; Warwickshire, Cleveland and Derbyshire have each lost 12%. If the anticipated constitutional chaos following May 7 results in a return of the same administration that has overseen the cuts of the last half-decade, projected estimates suggest a further 34,000 officers will go, leaving the overall body count of the Coalition at 68,000. However pitiful any signs of improvement seem to be in the NHS, governments continue to throw money at it, yet for such an equally essential service, the police force has not received the same special treatment; instead, it has been stripped to the bone at an alarming rate.
Of course, bureaucracy is as prevalent across the police stations of the nation as it is across the nation’s hospitals, the flaccid layers of middle-management meddling that get in the way of the job that needs doing; but when cuts are applied, these levels tend to escape unscathed; instead, it’s the bits of the service that the service is supposed to be there for that suffer. And, ultimately, it is the public that suffers more than anyone else. Forget the headline crimes – the bank jobs, the terrorist incidents, the dramatic murders; these relatively rare occurrences are not what most of us regard as especially relevant to the day-to-day running of our communities. The commonplace crimes that don’t make for a particularly exciting episode of ‘CSI’ are what the police call ‘signal crimes’ – the burglary, the lost pet, the graffiti, the loud music at 3.00am; and dealing with this kind of crime is most under threat when resources are slashed.
Despite Hillsborough, despite Rotherham, despite the dubious political motivations of Yewtree, and despite a host of other high-profile examples of incompetence in recent years, public confidence in the police remains unexpectedly high. Last year, an Ipsos MORI poll found that, of those asked, 65% said they trusted the police, the most positive response to that question in over thirty years. Such figures should be cause for celebration when it comes to a public service that has endured so much bad publicity over the past couple of decades – largely, it has to be said, as a result of its own ineptitude; but the one way in which the police could capitalise on this would be to not merely invest in high visibility on the street, but to infuse that high visibility with a feeling of being at one with the people the police are supposed to serve.
There have always been areas of the country, or at least certain neighbourhoods of towns and cities, where the police have traditionally been viewed as the enemy, even during the ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ era of post-war policing, when a heated situation was allegedly diffused with a jocular clip round the earhole; this will probably remain the case where some urban enclaves are concerned, though that’s not to say the police cannot at least put those at ease who feel more threatened when the force is mistrusted by a majority by ensuring they have a notable presence pounding the pavements.
PC Andy Hocking was perhaps the archetypal officer to play this role – an old-school community copper patrolling the streets of Falmouth in Cornwall for the best part of 20 years. When he suddenly died at the criminally young age of 52, those same streets were lined with a staggering 6,000 people to pay their respects – the kind of numbers one would expect to attend the drive-by of a funeral cortege for a celebrity or prominent politician. But PC Hocking evidently made a difference to those he served by doing what many of us expect the police to do – simply being there.
If ever affability were detectable on the countenance, the photographs of PC Hocking paint a portrait of the Bobby we’d all welcome to our neighbourhood; and PC Hocking was as familiar a face within his patch as any local shopkeeper or publican, a vital element of that community. Yes, one could argue Falmouth is hardly the crime capital of the country – 6,000 crimes were recorded there in January 2015 compared to nearly 20,000 in London’s Tower Hamlets over the same period; but it is perceived police opinion that the kind of policing PC Hocking embodied is the kind that diminishes the prospect of persistent antisocial behaviour, the cause of far more misery to the public than the more sensationalistic crimes that end up being the lead story on the news bulletins. This could, and should, be applied across the board, regardless of whether the beat is urban or rural.
Unless we emanate from a family and environment where being detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure is the sole career prospect, we are taught as children to trust the police and to see them as friendly, approachable adults with whom we will be safe. In the current climate, where every adult male is viewed with suspicion and avoided, this role is more precious than ever. Yet, one’s faith in the police can often be shaped by one bad experience with one bad copper; he or she is somehow held up as representative of the entire force. It’s an instinctive gut reaction and I should imagine we’ve all done it; I certainly have. All the trust we were encouraged to have in the police as children can be dispelled by a rotten apple with attitude; but if the local Bobby was someone we passed on a daily basis when out and about, someone we actually knew by name, isolated incidents would probably be seen as precisely that rather than as an example of the force as a whole.
If you live in a town or city – and, chances are, you do – perhaps the litmus test as to the state of post-cuts policing is to count how many coppers you see on your travels through your neighbourhood. I would imagine the ‘Starsky & Hutch’ siren and speeding patrol car will figure at least once, but what of the PC pounding the beat? Probably not as visible as his equivalent on wheels, I’d guess. I’m out of doors most days, walking up busy thoroughfares thronging with pedestrians, yet will maybe only see a copper on foot no more than once or twice in a whole week. I’ve no idea if I’m seeing the same one every time either. Would you recognise your community policeman or woman by sight? Do you know their name? I’d recognise the staff who serve me in supermarkets and would even stop and say hello to some shopkeepers; but the policeman or woman one encounters seem to have an aura of anonymity about them that makes them less approachable. Even if they just said ‘Good morning’ when they walked past would make them feel part of the local wallpaper.
The successful career of PC Andy Hocking, getting on with job in a modest, unassuming and yet utterly effective manner, shows that it can be done; and the moving reaction to his untimely death from those he walked amongst shows the public respond to the police when they get it right. This, surely, is the blueprint, and one that needs investing it, not pruning.
Petunia Winegum
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April 26, 2015 at 9:37 am -
‘…public confidence in the police remains unexpectedly high.’
You spelt ‘unaccountably’ wrong there, Petunia…
Yes, we wish they were all PC Hockings. But the evidence (and experience) suggests they aren’t, by a long chalk.
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April 26, 2015 at 10:19 am -
An excellent summary, Petunia.
Sadly, you’ve overlooked the fact that whilst Bobbies & & PCSos are less visible ‘on the beat’, we can actually all sleep safe at night knowing their expertise has been diverted to monitoring Twitter.
This has reduced their overheads significantly, and, reduced their Carbon Footprint since there’s less need for PatrolCars.
The knock-on effect however, is that local garages receive less exposure since the mobile advertising hoardings “Supplied by Bloggs Garage” now operate with a much-reduced allocation of fuel.
I suppose it won’t be long before at least one ‘Green’ Authority imposes 100% electric vehicles on their squad.
The press then eagerly awaits the first reported incident of the squad car conking out en-route to a ‘shout’ ‘cos its siren had been used 2 mins & 15 seconds longer than SoP dictated.
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April 26, 2015 at 10:27 am -
Their numbers are being reduced while criminal masterminds are getting more and more sophisticated with each passing year. At the same time hoardes of immigrants are swamping our shores…
You couldn’t make it up.
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April 26, 2015 at 10:29 am -
During my teenage years, I had several run ins with the police – not because I was a criminal or had done anything wrong, but because I was flamboyant (obviously a gay/glamrock/disco/punk/new romantic/goth queen) and was therefore an easy target. It made me hate police and all authority figures (but I accepted it was part of the territory I inhabited).
I was arrested, finger-printed, photographed – for the offence of riding a motorcycle as a pillion passenger without a crash helmet. I was working as a reporter at the time and often covered the local magistrates court. One time, a PC at court to give evidence told me they still had those photos on their canteen wall and everybody “got a bloody good laugh” out of them. It was also obvious, when covering “not guilty” pleas how officers colluded in writing up their notes, but lied about it to gullible magistrates (or magistrates who felt unable to tell the police to get their act together and be honest).
Growing up, I have needed police assistance (though having been queerbashed while British Transport Police looked on, I was not very – er – confident about asking for it) and have found them to be almost always kind and efficient. My best mate’s sister is now a PCSO and she tells stories of good and bad apples and so I’m really drawn to the conclusion police are just as human as anybody else – both good and bad, both competent and inept, and it really is luck of the draw what you end up dealing with. That is not the way it should be. The bad apples need plucking more aggressively than is now the case.
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April 26, 2015 at 10:59 am -
Saw a a rather tiny police lady on her own stroll down our street a couple of days back. On Friday I ate delicious M&S crisps and drank some nice Drench concoction before plodding the long mile home with my wheely shopper. Near to me was a big personelle carrier with policey blazons plastered all over it, and a drop down grill poised above the windscreens, parked outside the said M&S. After some time a group of young policemen, just out of their trainers that glitter little lights when kids walk, came out of M&S and climbed into the wagon. So 7 policemen/woman seen in about 2 days…..not bad. How effective they would be in riotous assemblage? Or would they hide behind the metaphorical settee? We had a lovely PCSO used to pop in for a cuppa and a chat. He left for an inner London borough as our town was ‘boring’. Just in time for those riots! We made him put his bike in the hall in case we were dissed for fraternising with the plods.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:11 pm -
The police helicopter hovers over this area regularly.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:22 pm -
Can’t remember where I saw this, but aren’t crime figures down? Maybe that’s a statistical fiddle, or people have given up bothering to report crimes – I don’t know the real truth of it. However, Police numbers down and crime rising would be a problem. Police numbers down and crime falling…..maybe not such a problem.
I had a ‘mate’ once who was a firearms officer in a large city. He retired early with a bad back and a generous pension in his late forties. It seemed that in his force, almost nobody made it to ‘proper’ retirement age; they were all invalided out early, many with bad backs. I’m happy to report that a few short months after his retirement, he enjoyed a miraculous recovery (as did many of his contemporaries), and now in his late fifties he continues to enjoy a full and active retirement at our expense.
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April 26, 2015 at 4:14 pm -
Here’s a test. Call your local Police and try to report that your credit card has been cloned and ask for a Crime Number. They don’t want to know. They’ll tell you to contact your bank, who will rapidly refund your losses – so you’ve not lost anything, therefore no crime is reported or counted.
Except, of course, that your bank has lost money, but the banks seem happy to collude in this ‘crime-reduction’ exercise.
As this form of fraud is a major growth area in crime, its deliberate omission from the official statistics may go some way to explaining the apparent overall ‘reduction’ in reported crime.-
April 27, 2015 at 1:51 pm -
I suspect many thefts are left unreported. Unless the loss is recoverable through insurance – and therefore needs to be reported – most people I know wouldn’t think it was worth the trouble.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:22 pm -
Do me a favour, the blame lies, not with the “cuts” ( what cuts? ) but in the Chief Constables, who have gradually increased their power base by taking on work,that had nothing traditionally to do with them. So they became,or tried to become a all things to all people and failed miserably,but , “hey,look at how busy we have become ,we need more money,more people,more everything”. So now instead of doing the stuff they should be doing ,they can’t because they don’t know where to spread themselves. Your examples of noise , lost pets etc, are not crimes, they can and should be done by other agencies. I walk, the streets six days a week, for my job and have done do for the last 8 by ears, I have never in at time seen more than 2 officers ,except for speed trap duty. My heart bleeds for them, not. As my dad always says,”never trust a copper”.
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April 26, 2015 at 4:07 pm -
Speed-trap duty is one example where inefficiency is rife.
Our local Plod frequently place a camera-van in a local lay-by, one you can’t spot round the corner until it’s too late. It is always occupied by two fully-qualified, uniformed, warranted PCs, and sometimes a sergeant – yet they are merely conducting an administrative task. When the camera snaps a ‘speeder’, they just press a few keys and the fine arrives in the post a few day later. There is no contact with the ‘criminal’, there is no investigation, detection or evidence-gathering, there is no danger. This task (if really necessary) could just as easily be carried out by a single, civilian, admin clerk, probably saving 80% of the cost.
There’s plenty more scope for cuts in the over-funded police (as there is also in the over-funded NHS) – just don’t leave it to the 43 individual and self-important Chief Constables to decide where they should bite. That’s putting the fox in charge of the chicken-coop.-
April 26, 2015 at 4:32 pm -
“Our local Plod frequently place a camera-van in a local lay-by, one you can’t spot round the corner until it’s too late”
That’s a regular occurrence in the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire. Another ploy used at Swinton, in Rotherham – now where have I heard that name before? – is having the van parked facing the victims while the sensor is up against a lamppost on the other side of the street. Prevention? They couldn’t 4king spell it.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:39 pm -
Windsock,
In the 70s or even 80s your dress would have been unremarkable: it could have been any male given the fashion of the time. For example, it never occurred to me that Freddie Mercury was gay, or that the cross dressing in ‘I want to be free’ had any significance at all! Dressing up for a lark, and cross dressing as schoolgirls, wasn’t simply the preserve of the toffs, but happened in many a ‘Rag Week’.I suppose that you think that your flamboyance attracted attention and made you a target for yobbery. What you have missed is that the entirely bland, unextraordinary and ‘normal’ folk got interfered with in much the same way, but as mugging rather than homophobia. To me, the offence – violence, intimidation or theft – is the same even though the intention is different. You could have been less flamboyant, but you would have been meted out the same treatment by those people. For you, it could be ‘queer bashing’, but for others, it was ‘are you looking at me?’ or being barged or felt up in a crowd or having your pocket/handbag picked. I’ll bet that through it all, you never feared being raped …
Like you, I’ve found that police attending a real crime or an accident are the best kind, but I’ve been on the other end of it: collusion between two lying coppers to give false evidence to name just one of the offences.
If the number of coppers has gone down, is this the natural result of crime going down, or has crime gone down because there are less coppers to make it happen? For example, I don’t imagine there would be so many high speed chases if coppers didn’t rise to the bait so easily.
One reason for a rapid drop is that coppers have retired as early as possible to avail themselves of the previous pension regime: the new one may well still be one of the best in the public sector, but it isn’t quite so good as what went before (apparently, and according to the Police Trade Union) .
Before anyone says you don’t want coppers in their 50s and 60s chasing crooks – well there are many jobs in policing that don’t require that. Desk sergeant for one, visiting the victims of crime some hours after the perpetrator(s) absconded, or interviewing witnesses. Harrassing motorists or press photographers? Opening the bloody gates to Downing Street? Some of these don’t really seem to call for body armour, do they?
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April 26, 2015 at 12:48 pm -
You’re quite right in that I can only speak from my own perception of events – but when someone is calling you a “fucking queer cunt” while the boot is going in, it seems like that perception is confirmed. And if you grew up in small town shitsville (outside of the main metropolises), fashion at the time for males did not include make-up, glitter, yellow vinyl velcro trousers or hair extensions. Now, it’s a different matter.
Men do get raped – we don’t live in the same fear of it as women, no, (in that not many men I know speak about it). But I can speak personally of that experience and I know one other man who can too.
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April 26, 2015 at 2:28 pm -
Well I’m truly sorry that you and your friend suffered. But doesn’t raping a homosexual male make the rapist himself a ‘fucking queer cunt’? (If that’s the terminology one uses). If so, don’t the others round on him, and so on, until only one recently self-created ‘fucking queer cunt’ is left standing? One lives in hope! I’ve never understood the subtleties of this. Enlighten us, please. When raping a gay man, does the perpetrator practice ‘safe sex’ or are they all irrational, as isn’t homophobia driven in part by folklore about HIV? (I hear that condoms are sometimes used in heterosexual rape to avoid leaving DNA).
No doubt the vocal abuse is distressing, but it’s the boot, fist, forehead or sharp of blunt instrument that I’d prefer to avoid …
Very occasionally, the boot is on the other foot, metaphorically speaking. I knew of one young man stabbed in a gay bar in Brighton he’d gone into accidentally (Cue jokes about what he was stabbed with. Heard them all before.)
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April 26, 2015 at 2:40 pm -
I’m not going to parade my particular experience in this area for your titillation, sorry.
Suffice to say that your reply leaves me with the impression you have little understanding of sexuality, nor violence itself.
Also, queerbashing was prevalent way before AIDS/HIV.
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April 26, 2015 at 3:00 pm -
One would have thought the advent of HIV/AIDs would have quickly put an end to it, and who in their right mind would anally rape a stranger, with Mother Nature overseeing infection rates. Only the criminally insane presumably.
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April 26, 2015 at 3:10 pm -
While living in USA, a case was reported of a man who had been severely queerbashed. His attackers beat him so brutally he bled – and so did they, and they were lated reported to have become infected with HIV from the incident.
Violence and sexual drive combined often mean that common sense and health precautions are not uppermost in a perpetrator’s mind.
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April 26, 2015 at 3:55 pm -
Moor put it better than I. But I find it counterintuitive that straight males would indulge in homosexual behaviour to ‘punish’ a homosexual for being homosexual – that was the paradox that I wanted to explore – more so, but not only so, when it becomes ‘risky’ behaviour to the rapist. And please, Windsock, don’t imagine that I want to read the horrible details of anyone’s experience at the hands of such people. (I wrote sordid originally, but realise that the word now has perjorative connotations which I didn’t want). I used your language, which I realise in retrospect is exclusively for the use of a specific section of the community who ‘reclaimed’ it, which made it sound frivolous. Apologies. I struggle to find an analogue elsewhere of a similar paradox.
Sexual violence in my limited experience seems to be the behaviour of the sexually inadequate and repressed, not the sexually driven.
Blood transmission of the virus seems to me to be rough justice. But the violence does not call into question the sexuality of the perpetrators in quite the same way as homosexual rape does; just their moral compass. Whereas violence to a woman by a man, culminating in rape (like the appalling example in the news) while inflicted on a woman because she is a woman does not turn the rapist into a woman, now does it?
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April 26, 2015 at 5:01 pm -
I believe we are misconstruing each other’s answers.
So – back to the start. This was a post about police. I was outlining my reception as a rebelious/provocative youth I got at OPFFICER’S hands as a result – just low key consistent harassment – where are you from, where are you going, what you been doing -EVERY BLOODY NIGHT.When they were witness to a crime upon my person ,they watched – and then asked if I wanted to report the incident afterwards. I told them to fuck off – I had wanted an intervention, not a piece of paper, and preferably my two front teeth back. This attack was by squaddies at Waterloo station who had witnessed me with a very camp/fabulous rent boy friend in a pub the night before.
The “queer fucking cunt” can be used by anyone – I was not reclaiming at for my own particular identity – it was what I was called during the attack.
The rape was very confusing – the initial contact, I believe, was was sincere in his desire for mutual activity, but was not “out” and was with a group of friends that did not seem to want to separate., but after failing to find a place for us to indulge we ended on a beach where, surrounded by four of his friends he changed and invited them to hold me over the hood of the car while he and they took turns – that had not been on my agenda.
Fortunately I made it too difficult for everyone to complete their mission – once a man has shot his load, he feels unwilling to hold anyone down, so the last two missed out as I was bucking and biting, kicking and elbowing… This was not in England. Strangely enough they took me back to town in the car but pushed me out of it while it was still moving at high speed once we reach the town square.
I never complained about this nor reported it. I HAD been asking for it – from one of them. Just not his four friends. I was also the worse for wear due to drink So that’s why I took responsibility for it rather than going to police.
As for raping males if you’re straight, I believe it has power connotations, a “dirty little faggot is getting what he wanted huh?” and the sense of superiority someone feels when forcing someone (anyone) into a passive role. And I have no complaint about you using the language. It belongs to everyone, but context is everything. Hearing those same words here is not the same as hearing them from a rapist. Or a queerbasher
Finally, I’d say sexual inadequacy need not be separated from sexual drive.
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April 26, 2015 at 11:18 pm -
That, dear Windsock, is bloody appalling. Being fitted up for a minor traffic offence is nothing to this.
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April 26, 2015 at 6:02 pm -
Why does it need a police officer to go visiting victims of crime? Why after every road traffic death , do they need to take a poi e officer to become a family liaison officer, it doesn’t ,it’s more power grabbing .
I was told a story once , whether it is true or not, I don’t know, but they had a drive to get office bound staff , out on the beat. They managed one,who went sick the next day! There are too many police officers on good money and attendant perks ,sat in an office,when they could be out there. As for we don’t want tnem chasing criminals when they are 50 + why not ? How many times are the frontline officers doing that? Not very often, they should be subjected to physical fitness tests , once a year , like the army are. Unfit? Get fit, or get out .-
April 27, 2015 at 1:59 pm -
I’m also not sure why over 50s, if they aren’t fit enough for front line duties, can’t be filling admin and other roles not needing that level of “athleticism”, thus freeing the fitter ones to be out on the street.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:46 pm -
I wonder whether PC Hocking was a ‘local lad’?
In France, still a land of strong communities, the expectation is that you will live and work in your birth community (Paris and its ilk excluded from this) consequently, ‘the Police’ tend to be someone’s brother, someone’s uncle, your neighbour’s Father…and are treated accordingly.
I never saw many ‘on the beat’ – but frequently shared a bench seat in the local 10 Euro diner, or half a table in a coffee bar with Policemen (and drop dead gorgeous Police women), Firemen, the local Dentist, Uncle Tom Cobley and all – so they aren’t quite the alien figures they appear to be in England. They are Pierre and Francine, Tomas and Celine, and they turn up at the same weddings you do, buy their bread in the same boulangerie, and stop for a natter regardless of whether they are in uniform and ‘tooled up’ or in civvies.
So it’s not so much whether they are ‘on the beat’, more whether they are part of the community.-
April 26, 2015 at 12:51 pm -
In Italy, I understand that if you join the national rather than municipal police force, you are immediately stationed away from your birthplace/home because the chances of turning a blind eye to corruption and/or being corrupted are too high.
That’s probably why police officers are bussed in to London from outlying constabularies (Wales, Yorkshire) when demonstrations are planned.
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April 26, 2015 at 7:07 pm -
The landlady muses “I wonder whether PC Hocking was a ‘local lad’?”
Can’t say for certain but Hocking is a very common surname down here. It seems the name was first recorded as Hawk, which became Hawke, Hawkins, Hawking as well as Hocken, Hocking and other variants.
(There is no charge for this service!)
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April 27, 2015 at 3:04 pm -
(Pierre & Francine, etc.) Presumably you are describing the civic police (or whatever they are called). I don’t think the gendarmes are regarded as very cuddly; and British police are being turned into gendarmes, festooned with weapons and electronic equipment. The amalgamation of local constabularies will hasten this process.
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April 26, 2015 at 12:56 pm -
I just about remember the ‘coppers’ of those days of yore, yes we had respect for them because they earned our respect, they didn’t demand it.
But not now, not any more. Since becoming a ‘force’ rather than a ‘service’ the policy enforcers have sold their souls to the corporations and the banks.Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-JNCjxwwIs
Will they regret these decisions when they are working for G4S or Serco and the loss of their formerly well deserved pensions.
If any commenters/readers can take the time to watch the above video could they please explain the arm insignia of the ‘bobby’ at 10mins30 secs.-
April 26, 2015 at 2:24 pm -
“Will they regret these decisions when they are working for G4S or Serco and the loss of their formerly well deserved pensions.”
I doubt that a single one of those officers has the intellectual capability to understand events. Its beyond any reasonable doubt that those officers are very carefully selected from a thankfully small section of society who are predisposed to acting in this way, and I personally suspect that many enjoy the work that they do.
Although its impossible to feel any sort of sympathy for those officers, they are as much victims of a completely corrupt and imoral system as the poor chap who lost his home.
Personally Ive always had a respect for the police (despite many a run in with the law in my youth, and the odd kicking in the back of a police van) However police involvement in civil matters isnt a new development, in my experience, they’ve alwasys been corporate whores, and I say that both as a victim, and as a previous user of their services to bully others.
This rose tinted nostalgic view of the police of a bygone age is bollocks really, I cant remember a time when the police in the UK wernt completely corrupt, with their fingers in the more lucrative markets.
On another note, one really has to ask who MORI polled to find 65% of respondants trusting the police. Not a single one of my immediate neighbours in the UK trust the police, one of the more vocal critics amongst them is an ex conservative minister (athough in fairness he has first hand experience of fitting up victims in conjunction with the old bill, so he knows the score)
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April 26, 2015 at 5:12 pm -
Erm.. (Polite cough) it used to be the ‘Police Force’, now it is the ‘Police Service’.
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April 26, 2015 at 6:08 pm -
Really? Not according to Greater Manchester Police FORCE. http://manchestergazette.co.uk/30371/greater-manchester-police-launch-new-website
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April 27, 2015 at 1:26 am -
Weird. Just goes to show you can’t believe everything on the Interweb. I am (mumbles age hastily) and have, since I was knee high to a thingummy heard the coppers collectively referred to as the ‘Police Force’ until the 1990’s when the change in nomenclature from ‘Force’ to ‘Service’ first took place.
Maybe the coppers just decided to change it back?
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April 27, 2015 at 8:24 am -
It’s not hard to see that the tension between “force” and “service” lies behind much of the madness of the modern police. It’s all to do with Public Relations. It struck me that PR is what lies behind the need the police feel to have a survey to see what the public thinks of them. It crossed my mind that the only people likely to have an opinion based on fact about the cops are the criminals; for the law-abiding the cops are pretty much of an irrelevance. I have never had private cause to contact them at all. Via burglaries at work I had to call them a number of times and to the best of my memory, on only one single occasion was the crime solved or any criminal caught. That one was a nice guy who was working for us who had a drink problem and ran off with £70 cash once in about 1980, so £70 was enough for a two or three day bender. After those three days he turned up at home again and was promptly arrested. I had to go to court as the principal prosecution witness and then see him locked up for six months. I honestly couldn’t see the point in any of it, but the law was satisfied even if I wasn’t.
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April 27, 2015 at 8:00 pm -
These YouTube stunts are a double edged sword. Normally I tend to sympathise with people who can’t pay the rent. Or squat, though I see you aren’t saying which.
However, listening to the pompous self satisfied commentary you’ve managed to change my mind.
The group outside were obviously looking for confrontation but didn’t provoke much. Job well done by the police.-
April 28, 2015 at 9:30 am -
“Job well done by the police” Since when have the police been empowered to collect on civil debt? Or indeed evict people from their homes?
The group outside where there to make sure the bailiff had the correct paperwork, warrant for distress of goods-which they never have- to the value of the debt owed.
The man evicted by the Tactical Aid Unit allegedly owed £6000 corporation tax to the local council.
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April 26, 2015 at 1:07 pm -
Judging from the performance of the police in Tower Hamlets, the fewer Plod that are on the streets the better. Anyway, much better employed chasing D list celebs on the basis of trawled evidence about what happened 30 years ago.
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April 26, 2015 at 1:22 pm -
It doesn’t seem long ago to me that an inspector patiently explained that we hadn’t got anti-social behaviour, it was incivility. Cars being set alight in the rec car park!
Before that the message from on high was that the problem wasn’t crime, it was the fear of crime.
About the same time that lovely Mr Straw introduced the 1998 Act which made crime & it’s prevention the duty of local authorities as well as the police. i.e. there’s always somebody else to blame.
Then we had the drive to get us to hire Wardens; we’re already paying for police & now we’re asked to pay for people without power too. ‘But they’ll collect old folk’s prescriptions too’, said the handwringers, so uninvolved they didn’t know the chemist’s already did that, for free.
Then it was election of political commissioners- anyone impressed?
Oddly, considering the knocking, it’s our PCSO that’s been a success; knows the problem people & sorts out the problems. And doesn’t need a map to find her way round. -
April 26, 2015 at 2:16 pm -
Regardless of my personal experiences – some of which are unbelievable – I lost whatever faith I had in the supposedly so macho Met when they had their arses whipped by Doreen Lawrence. I can’t stand the woman but I give her credit for that. The fit up of Michael Stone by Kent Police and the Operation Yewtree witch-hunt in particular the Rolf Harris conviction have drained whatever I may have had left.
They know these women are all demented or simply liars, but they don’t care. Chasing old men is easier than fighting real crime.
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April 26, 2015 at 3:10 pm -
The numbers game “since 2010″ is a trifle silly. This old BBC page seems to suggest that once Thatcher was gone, the policeman’s friend was gone: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1717038.stm How ironic is that, given the malignancy about the tacher years promoted by Operation Yewtree. I daresay the 65% trust figure simply represents the fact that the majority of the public has nothing to do with the police. That 35% of the population does, almost seems worrying.
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April 26, 2015 at 3:32 pm -
This made me snortle: “We’re starting to see lapses in the quality of reports. Peter Singleton, Merseyside Police Federation”
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April 26, 2015 at 5:31 pm -
I too remember the local copper and his modest house, which everybody in the village knew was there. That didn’t stop teenage wrong-doing of course – testosterone does not quail at the sight of a uniform – but it did remind you that the policeman was acting for the community of which he was a part, and there would be societal consequences if you stepped out of line.
The closest I have come to the police in recent years was when thieves stole some expensive tools from my builder who was working on an extension at the side of my house. The local policeman, after going through the formalities of getting a statement from me, asked how much I wanted for my house, saying that his girlfriend was nagging at him to buy a place somewhere. As it happened I had no intention of selling, but that simple gesture of humanity was a timely reminder that police officers face exactly the same domestic pressures as the rest of us.
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April 26, 2015 at 10:03 pm -
Brought up to believe if you were law abiding the police were on your side and could be relied on for help. This lasted until I wittnessed an incident and the police officers blatantly lied. An innocent young man could have had his life ruined but fortunately the judge believed us. We did at least lodge a complaint which was followed up. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw a policeman walking around though we occasionally see a couple of PCSOs. Recent events against reporters and elderly celebrities have killed what little trust I had left.
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April 27, 2015 at 9:33 am -
I believe we have a “community policeman” in our area. I think he goes to parish council meetings and explains that he can’t do anything about any of the things that concern the people there “due to lack of resources”, but I couldn’t tell you his name.
As for out and about on the streets, never ever, not even once. Just does not happen.
If you have a problem at night, there is – according to local legend – ONE patrol car covering the entire county. Good luck being top of their list.
But no doubt the managers are well paid and the offices are nice and the boys have plenty of toys.
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April 27, 2015 at 8:12 pm -
Yes but what do your neighbours want? Some of mine seem to want 24 hour patrols though there is virtually no crime and what there is is often caused because we don’t bother locking down our valuables or even our windows and doors on some occasions. I definitely don’t want surplus plod hanging around doing pointless meet and greet exercises.
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April 27, 2015 at 12:18 pm -
It does not sound from all the above that the Mr Plod is in good favour. I have read all the books allegedly by disaffected police persons. Copperfield et al. Doreen Laurence’s book too. Especially after no less than several readings of some chapters. I think that her legacy has some traction on our police services uses and procedures currently….beneficial? I think it has been proved that when the police stand back from trouble or ignore current sexual crimes due to certain pressures, the result is less than desirable for all society at large.
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April 27, 2015 at 7:46 pm -
Actually I think the policing on the street is better than it was and the police and criminal evidence act stopped a lot of the fitting up which used to go on. I don’t think there is a high level of corruption either. So I’m not particularly negative.
I also think that a lot of middle class plod bashing is based on snobbery. But then my grandad was a chief inspector so I would say that,wouldn’t I. -
April 28, 2015 at 10:19 am -
It seems to me that the police in the UK are being encouraged, as they are in the US, to view the population at large as a threat, at best, or the ENEMY, at worst. I suspect that this is very largely a consequence of the ludicrous and hysterical attitude towards health and safety that has infected society as a whole.
The siege mentality that the threat/enemy worldview generates is probably the main reason that the police now attend every incident mob-handed, often to a completely farcical extent. In one ‘fly on the wall documentary’ that I saw the police were executing a raid on a suspected drug dealer living in a tiny first-floor flat. Over a dozen officers attended; so many that once they had all filed upstairs and into the flat, followed by the camera crew, the place was completely rammed with people. The footage was hilarious and made the police’s ‘tactics’ look even more stupid than they evidently were. I know this is only telly, but if this is not the approach that the police would normally take why would they do it this way on camera and make themselves look like fools in the process ?
If the police could attend incidents in ones or twos, rather than two carloads and a minibus full as the minimum response, they might be able to attend more incidents and provide a presence on the beat as well. Just sayin….
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May 5, 2015 at 12:38 pm -
The police seem to wield great power and can cleverly bring down a government minister with a flurry of lies and misspelled tee-shirts. So BicycleGate and Yewtree shows the public how resourceful the police are. This makes the public fear not only dna-swabs and microphones, but concocted conversations. Bobby on a push bike? Bobby on a street? Ain’t nothing compared to Bobby on the witness stand.
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