A fitting memorial

The police must sometimes feel they are the whipping boys for society’s ills, expected to act as both law enforcer and social worker and rarely given credit for either. They feel undervalued, culturally and financially, resentful of the Government’s refusal to give them a pay rise. The Police Federation recently declared “no confidence” in Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, though this is, in truth, par for the course for holders of that office.

Boris Johnson said yesterday that he wanted to reward them more generously but the country could not afford to do so after the expenditure on pandemic measures. The focus, he added, was on expanding their numbers and “thickening the blue line”. Shortly after confirming that there will be no pay rise for officers earning more than £24,000 a year until 2022 at the earliest, the Prime Minister attended the dedication ceremony for a memorial at the National Arboretum to officers who have died in the line of duty. It is thought around 1,500 officers have been killed since recognisably modern policing began some 200 years ago.

This country has a unique relationship with a police force that remains civilian in its make-up, and largely unarmed. It means that policing is by consent not coercion. We are quick to complain if the police are not around when we need them but we should also remember that officers are members of the public who, in the words of Sir Robert Peel, “are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence”. The police act as our proxies, required to place themselves in dangerous circumstances that the rest of us can avoid. It is fitting to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.