COPS TOLD: MORE BEAT LESS TWEET
Police chief goes back to basics
A POLICE boss has urged cops to shun social media and focus on catching crooks.
Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester, demanded that bobbies stop “virtue-signalling” online and get on with their job.
He admitted to scrolling through officers’ social media and thought they should “get on with being the police because that’s what you are paid for”.
He added: “The public don’t care what I have for breakfast, or what my opinions are on contemporary social issues.”
Watson also said cops should avoid “public discourse on
Twitter, where people are knocking lumps out of each other”, adding: “That’s just not for the police.”
Watson has been hailed for shaking up his force, bringing it out of special measures in less than two years. The time taken to answer 999 calls has fallen in the past year and the number of suspects charged has risen.
The chief, who puts his success down to a “back-to-basics approach”, added: “Using social media, in these very contested times, requires a particular skill. And it’s a skill that we do not have. So for the most part, regardless of our intentions, we tend to use social media badly.
“And actually, reaching out to communities is all too often perceived as virtue signalling. And, candidly, in some cases it is virtue signalling.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has branded Watson a superb leader.
IT’S good to see a senior cop speaking common sense.
Too often those at the very top try to befuddle the public with political jargon and insincere promises.
But Greater Manchester chief constable Stephen Watson does not mince his words.
He understands that the public’s main desire of the police is that they catch criminals and respond to emergencies. It’s hardly rocket science.
But with all the red tape and tiptoeing around political correctness, you’d be forgiven for forgetting what the thin blue line is actually for.
We don’t need the police to be cool, or funny on Twitter, or even polite.
We just want them to protect the public in a fair way, and keep the wheels of justice rolling.
It shouldn’t be too much to ask.