HAVE OUR POLICE LOST THE PLOT?
As officers parade in bear costumes, painted nails and high heels while crime figures soar, the question . . .
POLICE chiefs were urged last night to abandon ‘silly stunts’ and get officers back on the beat. They were told their increasingly bizarre gimmicks are undermining the job of tackling crime. Officers were criticised for garishly painting their nails, posing for photos in bumper cars and stroking puppies for stress relief.
Others posed in bear masks and, in one force, drug squads insisted on asking cannabis growers if they were victims of slavery.
Yet shocking figures out this week showed that almost every type of crime is up, with knife offences alone rising by a quarter. Nine out of ten home burglaries are unsolved.
‘They have forgotten what their purpose is,’ said Mick Neville, a retired senior Scotland Yard detective.
‘Too many modern chief constables have got more degrees under their belts than arrests. The people in charge have simply not done
the job. The reason they do not investigate crime is they have never done it themselves. They are looking for cheap wins.’
Tory MP Peter Bone accused the police of ‘playing games’. He added: ‘ Most people think police should be out on the beat catching criminals and deterring crime, not doing silly stunts.
‘With limited resources I am sure police officers would rather be out catching criminals than taking part in a publicity stunt.’
In Avon and Somerset, police went out on patrol wearing neon nail varnish to raise awareness of modern-day slavery.
The force posted images of officers pampering themselves with the catchline ‘Let’s Nail It’. When the campaign provoked an angry backlash the force encouraged people who were criticised to report comments as a ‘hate crime’.
The event took place days after 21 Hum- berside Police officers were pictured enjoying the dodgems at Hull Fair. The force spent at least £40,000 in wages to send 40 staff to cover each day of the nine-day event.
Last week the Humberside force’s chief revealed it had been hauling constables out of back offices to man police cars and tackle a surge in 999 calls. Male officers from South Wales Police – as well as the force’s police and crime commissioner – posed in women’s shoes yesterday to highlight the issue of domestic violence.
It was also revealed this week that stressed- out officers are recovering from tragedies by cuddling puppies.
A clinic in Hackney, East London, is offer- ing support to those who helped tackle the Grenfell inferno and recent terror strikes in the capital.
On Monday, the Metropolitan Police Service admitted that tens of thousands of crimes would no longer be investigated. The force said cases worth less than £50, or where there is no CCTV, would not be probed unless a suspect is identified.
Earlier this week chief officers met in London to discuss the disturbing increase in crime and the toll it was taking on their staff. They are desperate to persuade the Government to pump more cash into the front line to tackle violence, complex offences and new threats.
One chief officer said: ‘Many police chiefs feel trapped in a corner. They have no money and a lot to tackle on their patches.
‘In many cases these gimmicky events don’t cost much and are an easy way of showing something is being done.’
TODAY, the Daily Mail has a question to ask: Are Britain’s police chiefs losing their marbles?
Only this week we have seen male officers in Avon and Somerset sporting bright nail varnish in a bizarre campaign to highlight modern slavery – based on the ludicrous logic that nail bars may be employing large numbers of trafficked women.
Worse, when challenged about this stunt, a spokesman for the force said anyone ridiculing officers who took part in it could be guilty of a hate crime.
How very politically correct. And what an appalling waste of police time.
Elsewhere, 21 uniformed bobbies are pictured taking over the dodgems at a Humberside funfair. They were supposed to be on duty but tweeted of ‘a fantastic afternoon at the fair’, clearly oblivious to the damage to the dignity of their office.
And in Warwickshire, where police were holding a ‘cake not hate’ event to raise awareness of hate crime, two PCSOs donned teddy and panda masks for a ‘teddy bear’s picnic’. The force claimed there was no connection between the two events, saying the PCSOs put on the masks ‘during unrelated enquiries’.
And all this in a week when figures show a disturbing 19 per cent increase in violent crime – with knife crime up 26 per cent.
Meanwhile, chief constables flout the authority of Parliament by choosing which laws to uphold and which to ignore.
Countless studies have proved that cannabis ruins young lives, splits families and damages communities. Yet across the country – as the Mail revealed on Tuesday – police chiefs are effectively decriminalising the production of this pernicious drug. Cannabis growers are being let off with ‘slap-on-the-wrist’ cautions.
And in raids on cannabis farms in Gloucestershire, those arrested were sympathetically asked: ‘Are you a slave?’
Police also seem to have almost given up investigating burglaries. In London, officers are now told that unless they can be quickly and easily solved, they should be given ‘low priority’ – in other words ignored.
And in another disturbing illustration of what’s going wrong, a Teesside pharmacy is having to employ private security to safeguard its staff and premises against attack by local gangs, because they can no longer rely on the police for protection.
All of which raises the question: If the police can’t ensure public safety and protect private property, what are they for?
Let us be clear. The Mail has huge respect for ordinary police officers, who carry out a difficult and often dangerous job with courage and dedication.
But the depressing truth is that their leaders have been infected by the virus of political correctness. They now see themselves as social engineers.
Highly politicised and dripping with academic qualifications (many in social sciences), they are managers more than police officers, obsessing over trendy issues such as diversity, while neglecting their primary purpose – fighting real crime and keeping public order.
They are constantly moaning about being starved of resources, yet still find millions for pointless investigations into historic sex abuse, or devote endless man-hours to scouring the web for offensive comments.
And while they’ve been busy smearing distinguished public servants such as Field Marshal Lord Bramall and Lord Brittan and patrolling the internet instead of the streets, knife crime, acid attacks and sexual assault have soared.
In its own mission statement, Scotland Yard pledges to fight crime and ‘earn the trust and confidence of every community’.
To live up to those fine words, police chiefs must reset their distorted priorities and do what the public wants them to do – reclaim the streets and catch criminals. No more vacuous stunts!