Yes, our police chiefs have lost the plot

On the front page of saturday’s paper, the Mail asked: Have Britain’s police chiefs lost the plot?

Today, a damning report by Her Majesty’s inspectorate of Constabulary provides more troubling evidence that they have.

We argued on saturday that despite new figures showing a disturbing 19 per cent rise in violent crime, forces around the country seem more preoccupied with engaging in politically-correct stunts than catching criminals. Among many absurd examples we highlighted were male officers from Avon and somerset painting their nails in a campaign to highlight ‘modern slavery’.

now the HMiC report reveals that while the police are indulging in such pointless charades, the vile traffickers behind what is labelled modern slavery – bringing women into this country for the purposes of prostitution or domestic servitude and men for unpaid menial labour – are being allowed to operate with virtual impunity.

in searing language, it warns the police response is ‘wholly inadequate’, with victims ‘being let down at every stage’ and some senior officers turning a blind eye.

The Mail can only hope police chiefs heed this timely warning – not just with regard to people trafficking but across all crimes. They must abandon their obsession with political correctness and get back to the basics of policing.

This means reclaiming the streets and focusing all their attention on tackling the growing crimewave. so no more vacuous publicity stunts. They fool nobody.

When sir robert peel created the modern police service in 1829, he wrote: ‘The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible

evidence of police action in dealing with them.’ That statement remains as true today as it was then.