Sensible policing in a national emergency

The police have a difficult job to do at the best of times, but in what the Government has decreed to be a national emergency their role takes on a different dimension. The powers assumed by the state to deal with the pandemic are passed on to the custodians of law and order to exercise, often not with the clarity they might wish. This leads to inconsistency and heavy-handedness, and risks losing the support of the public on which policing by consent relies.

When there is an emergency, this matters more than ever because it becomes so much easier to misuse authority. Last week’s reports that police in Derbyshire were tracking walkers in the Peak District by drone in order to “shame” people who were harming no one was a recent example of how powers can be used far beyond what is necessary.

There are reports of people being stopped in the street and their shopping examined for “nonessential” items. Cars have been flagged down and drivers asked to account for their movements. Some small shopkeepers who are allowed to stay open have been told that selling Easter eggs is not permitted despite there being no restriction on the range of goods they can offer.

Perhaps these are isolated cases of over-zealotry by officers who are as confused as the rest of us about the limits of personal activity, and are just trying to do the right thing. But there needs to be an application of common sense and proportion. Writing for this newspaper, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of the Met rightly observes that how the pandemic is policed will be remembered for many years to come.

He is also entitled to ask for the police to be given some latitude in the early stages. “Not every police response will be sure-footed, and some will spark healthy debate,” he says. “We should not judge too harshly.”

But as Lord Sumption, one of the country’s most eminent jurists, said on the BBC, we can too easily slide into illiberalism from which there is no easy way back. A police state is one in which the government issues orders and expresses preferences with no legal authority and the police enforce ministers’ wishes, he said.

There was always a strong temptation for the police to behave like “glorified school prefects”. It is a temptation to be resisted.