Proper policing

Britain has a new crime problem. Of course, crime is never low enough, but from the Nineties onwards it did at least go down. Today, violent crime is on the way up. In 2016 there was a 13-14 per cent increase in gun and knife crime. The blame is usually pinned on budget cuts but has much more to do with a poor sense of priorities. Officers are being misdirected towards deskwork; old-fashioned policing is suffering.

The experience of Andrew Foster, a landlord in Preston, Lancashire, confirms this state of affairs. When he trapped an intruder inside his pub, he called the police three times for help and was told there were no patrols available – that the incident did not count as an emergency. He turned to Facebook for help instead, and friends and neighbours gathered outside his establishment to show support. The police finally appeared one hour late. They regretted the delay and explained that it had been a “busy period of demand”.

The public expects that when they call for help, help will come: that is traditionally the policeman’s role. But the job description has been expanded to suit the demands of liberal politicians. Diversity is celebrated as an end in itself; the police appear to spend more time “engaging” with communities than safeguarding them.

Meanwhile, some crimes seem to matter more than others. The police have thrown themselves with great enthusiasm into arresting journalists, investigating the lives of dead Tory politicians and recording hate crime – as if they were an army of statisticians rather than enforcers of the law. There is no need for more money. The solution is to get the force back to doing the job that taxpayers pay it to do.