The police can’t solve their problems with a lick of rainbow paint

When police chiefs condemned Boris Johnson’s new crime strategy last month as “weird and gimmicky”, those words clearly stuck with certain forces – who appear to have responded by adorning their patrol cars with rainbow flags and stars. ‘‘Hate crime cars’’ – named for what they seek to eke out, rather than a judgment on how they look – have been made over to encourage victims to report attacks. I know what you’re thinking: that’s some pretty powerful paintwork. But given reports of hate crimes have already been climbing – allegations have doubled in recent years, rising most sharply among the transgender community – isn’t the police’s bigger problem solving the ones already on their doorstep, rather than scouting for new business?

Deputy chief constable Julie Cooke of Cheshire Police, one of the forces who have given their cars a makeover, is optimistic that the vehicles’ impact will be “huge” in showing “the community that we want you to come forward”. Of when conviction rates will follow suit, there has been no mention.

In recent weeks we have learnt that, across the country, one in six crimes, including sex offences, no longer go to court; all prosecutions had fallen by a third in a year, as of March; and “community resolutions” – reached to avoid those involved receiving criminal records – have almost doubled, now standing at 16 per cent.

It all paints a picture of a police force in pursuit of “soft justice” – an image now fleshed out even more vividly with a fleet of star-spangled patrol cars.

It is right that the police put hate crimes in their sights. Last week, a 64-year-old man was attacked at random while walking to his local synagogue in London, suffering injuries to his face, and his foot breaking as he fell to the ground. Around an hour beforehand, not far away, a Jewish teenager was punched in the face by someone matching that same attacker’s description. CCTV images have been circulated; Scotland Yard are said to be aware of the case. No arrests have been made.

These are individual incidents, of course, but they highlight existing failings in an area police insist is top of their priority list. Instead of these rainbow flags communicating that the marginalised are safe in their hands – as was presumably hoped – it feels as if this image refresh has taken precedence over confronting existing problems: why has the proportion of people charged with violent crime fallen to the lowest level in 10 years? Why have rape convictions fallen to a record low? Why were just two per cent of dog thefts solved last year?

What people want from the police is to feel protected, and that a crime reported will be followed through to a just conclusion – not that those with ultimate jurisdiction over their safety are more interested in racking up likes and shares on the same social media sites where much abuse is being perpetuated.

Tackling hate crime – which, we must remember, is the chief aim of having the cars – “is a priority for policing, however this does not detract from the service to victims of other crime types” says deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton, a hate crime lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council. But the hoo-ha over rainbow cars is exactly that, a detraction and a distraction. The biggest thing this PR stunt has going for it is that it probably cost very little money – though any that has been spent is likely too much.

Maybe this all makes a little more sense in the context of the police’s recruitment drive. There are to be 20,000 new officers on the books by 2023, a target that the Government is currently 44 per cent of the way to achieving: to diversify the force, as they intend to do, requires projecting an image of one that can shift with the times.

That is not going to be achieved by slapping a rainbow on the side of a Ford Focus, however, but understanding that while the mores of the world may have changed, the requirements of the job, mostly, have not. It remains a position that requires bravery and confidence, the latter of which is achieved through trust – that when someone reports a crime, they know the officer tasked with solving it will do their damnedest to make that happen.

If people don’t feel that way – and the latest figures give them good reason not to – the police would do better to address that, rather than their paintwork.

What people want is to feel protected and not second best to social media likes