War on woke policing
SIR – Rishi Sunak is to tackle “woke” policing (report, October 30). This will prove to be no easy task, as the police force is broken and only a fundamental overhaul will allow a return to pre-Blair crime-fighting.
I joined the Metropolitan Police in 1991 and was one of a large number of ex-Servicemen and women to undertake the exhaustive and superbly run 20-week residential training course at Hendon. Recruitment was stringent and allowed only the best candidates on to the course, which many failed to complete.
A two-year probationary period with monthly attendances at continuation training had to be negotiated, and only then was an officer allowed to carry out the “office of constable”.
Tony Blair and the then Met commissioner Ian Blair presided over catastrophic changes to the force. This included the introduction of police community support officers, which in turn fomented the politicisation of the police and a distinct move to the Left, leading to the wholesale removal of a uniformed presence on the streets and the disappearance of police stations.
The tenets set out by Sir Robert Peel have been dismissed by the upper echelons in favour of Orwellian diktats and sexual politics, designed to make the police appear to be everyone’s friend. Currently the Met is not a force or even a service, but an embarrassing and rudderless ship.
I wish Mr Sunak the best of luck in turning the vessel around and bringing back a police force that is ready to fight crime without fear or favour.
Simon Crowley
Kemsing, Kent
SIR – You comment on the need for police forces “to do what the public wants and prioritise basic law and order” (Leading Article, October 29). Regrettably, it is not as simple as that.
The pressures of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, which underpins the state’s obligation to protect life, will always place the service of first resort at the vanguard of that duty. Theresa May exemplified the lack of understanding of what the police actually do with her diktat that the job of the service was “nothing more, and nothing less, than to cut crime”.
Nothing could be further from reality. Compounded by the inadequate resourcing of myriad other services, we today see the police as first responders to mental health crises, catastrophic wounding, heart attacks, social care matters and a whole host of other needs far removed from “what the public wants”.
For things to change, there needs to be meaningful dialogue at the highest strategic level to set out properly what the service is expected to do, but also to look at how properly to fund and resource the gaps in other services it is currently plugging. Maybe then police forces will be able to prioritise what the public expects of them.
Derek Flint
Lecturer in policing
Lytham, Lancashire