Modern Policing

It occurred to me the other night that we've got this whole gig back to front, thanks in no small part to New Labour's insistence that everything be measurable. It's fair to say that 95% of the law-abiding public would rather see police officers on the streets, engaging the local community, relieving Mrs Jones of the odd cup of tea, and preventing crime by presence. Not tearing around on blue lights from one job to the next, only stopping to speak to someone not involved in an incident to say "any idea where the High Street is, love?".

You see, New Labour loves statistics. "Violent crime is down!", "Domestic burglaries are down!", and "<insert offence here> crimes are down!" they bleat from the roof-tops. The thing is, yes, statistically, crime is coming down. But that doesn't necessarily mean less crime is happening. Was it Disraeli that said "Lies, damn lies and statistics"? If anything it is fair to say that there is the same amount, if not more violent crime occurring today than when I first joined the service 5 years ago. It's all about the recording ...

Surely policing is about preventing crime from taking place. I do not wish to spend my life chasing ticks in boxes. "Congratulations, PC Disillusioned" my skipper says. "You have the 2nd highest number of sanctioned detections this month on section". Great, and did any of those prevent a crime taking place? No. They were all after the fact. Of course, if we were out engaging our local community, giving little Johnny a clip round the ear as necessary, perhaps crimes wouldn't be committed in the first place.

Ah, but that is a false economy. You cannot measure prevention.

Must dash, I'm off to my next grade 1.