Coincidental to an Opinion piece I wrote a short while ago on the appalling record of clear-up rates by the police for petty crime, Rye News has received the following letter from a former policeman:
Dear Editor,
Tonight, (Wednesday 31st August), I am both angry and embarrassed. I have just watched the main headlines on the national news and seen my former occupation/profession crucified. The sad thing is that I simply cannot defend policing any longer.
For too long now, policing as we knew it has degenerated. Yes, a good deal of this is due to swathing cuts made by the current Government since they took office in 2010. However, an awful lot of the demise of policing is down to the current leadership i.e. senior police officers and the dreaded PCCs, the latter coming into post in 2012.
Policing has simply lost its way. It does, as has been stated by the Home Secretary, need to get back to basics. Much of today’s violence is due to a lack of proactivity by the police in targeting those responsible. In my day we knew who was responsible and got in first. We went through the doors of the regular offenders time and time again and made criminality a very uncomfortable way of living. That does not happen now and the death of the little girl in Liverpool is as much to do with a lack of police activity which could have prevented this from happening as it is to do with the individual who fired the gun. Yes, sadly I believe that policing is culpable.
Policing is, I believe, simple. It is government, senior officers in recent years and academics who have made it complicated. The police need to focus on two basic things. Identifying criminals and arresting and prosecuting them and keeping the public safe and preventing crime as a result. Yes, it is as simple as that!!!!
Kevin Moore
Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Sussex Police
Mr Moore is, in my view, absolutely right. What is needed is boots back on the beat (see my previous article) not uniformed police constables being encouraged to wiggle their bottoms to the beat of the Macarena at a Pride march in order to demonstrate their ‘inclusivity’, as reported in various national media a few days ago.
The Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) have brought in what is, in effect, ‘value for money’ policing and have tightened police purse strings accordingly. Value for money, surely, is seeing most crimes solved and criminals behind bars, not over 90% unsolved while the powers that be, seem more concerned with being seen to be diverse and inclusive than doing the job we pay our taxes for.
Image Credits: John Minter .
Kevin Moore, who I can vouch was dedicated to policing Rye as well as Sussex asa whole, has my empathy with his view ( I have long thought that the move from pro-active policing to re-active has been both expensive and less productive) – John Minter’s view, however, I don’t really empathise with – under proper guidance and management, backed by a political will can achieve diversity, inclusivity and efficiency and results
When I joined East Sussex Police in 1964 many of the personnel from Chief Constable Reggie Breffit down, had served in the armed forces during the war and it showed in their no nonsense approach to situations.
In the 1970s fast track promotion for graduates was introduced, these individuals had a completely different attitude and became the leaders. Hence the situation we have today.
The Police budget referred to above seems to be spread around by the PCC on all sorts of different community projects (that is when she and her troops are not marching with Brighton Pride to display their social conscience) which must directly affect the amount of money available for proper policing. ” My office has….. or I have …… awarded……”
During my service ‘fire brigade policing’ was starting to be introduced. the situation has further deteriorated since. to where we are today.
Recently the new Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police announced that his force was going to smarten up so as to not look like council workmen. They are to take pride in their job and provide proper policing, which means connecting with the public, preventing crime and arresting offenders.
Let us hope that attitude is taken up by our local force (sorry ‘service’) with a consequent improvement in all areas including prevention and detection.
Local force to Rye is now none existent, sadly a police station in need of loving care,looking dowdy and unkempt,and just a monument of days gone by,when we could actually call it a working police station.
I used to play football with Kevin Moore a long time ago! And he is spot on in his views of the police, I can vouch for that as I was driving past builders doing up a building with up to 5 vans parked on the pavement,some in the wrong direction ,no one could use the pavement especially mums with prams , with a police car in front which drove straight past without even a glance. Not good!!
This isn’t the only forum where people have negatively raised the issue of the Met Police showing some support for LGBTQ Pride events. It’s starting to look like latent homophobia. Would people dare comment if the Met Police also supported the BLM movement? Disappointingly LGBTQ hate crimes are on the rise. Many gay people are scared of reporting such matters to the police in case they are not taken seriously. One only has to read about Stephen Port who murdered at least 4 young gay men and the police brushed each death aside claiming it was a drug overdose or suicide to their distraught families.
I very much doubt the gay community need to see the police “encouraged to wiggle their bottoms” either. They only want to know that there’s some support if they are a victim of a crime and will be taken seriously. And after reading todays Evening Standard regarding Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, and a WhatsApp group with other members of the Met where they talked about looking forward to being able to taser children, the disabled and animals, and the desire to use guns, I would have thought a few police at a Pride event should be the least of our concerns.
Being of ‘an age’ when I remember ALL adults were to be respected; especially teachers and those in the police force. Of course, there was still bad behaviour (and there always will be) but this was dealt with in the appropriate way, and lessons were learned. Sadly, no one appears to own that respect anymore and even some parents are clearly not in control of their own children’s behaviour, due to not wanting to reprimand them when necessary.
Mr Minter’s criticism of police at Gay Pride events shows a lack of insight and understanding as to why they are there and why they attend other events around the country with different minority populations, and in many other countries (E.g. US, Canada, France, Netherlands, Finland, etc.). Police need to build relationships with the communities they serve and they want (and need) to recruit a police force from these diverse populations. That’s the main two messages from their participation. And what is probably not known by Mr Minter, who apparently has not interviewed any police officers attending such events, is that most of the police are off duty and are participating to either show solidarity or to to show that the police are there to support different minority groups and women.
This article is in part, a sad commentary on the Us vs Them atmosphere that has been heightened since the referendum campaign. Yes, more police walking the streets and knowing neighbourhoods is a very good thing, but direct or veiled attacks on minorities are not. And let’s not blame graduates and academics for these problems but hold 12 years of Conservative governments responsible for huge reductions in police budgets and thousands leaving police forces around the country.