THERE is something very rotten with the state of our rozzers when barely a day passes without the boys in blue back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Just this week we learnt Hertfordshire Police nicked parents for complaining on a WhatsApp group about their local school, and for good measure menaced a local councillor for getting involved in the row.
Eleven hours in a cell on suspicion of “harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance” for caring about your kids’ education.
Meanwhile, Leicester Police went full “’ello, ’ello, ’ello” on one wild mushroom enthusiast after some busybody reported her for picking fungus in a local park.
As the superbly named forager Louise Gather said: “I don’t think much common sense has been used. It was a bit excessive to send a policeman to my house.”
Earlier this year it was Essex Police harassing a journalist for hurty words on the internet and the endless rise of Non Crime Hate Incidents has been well documented since.
Out of their depth
I was always less inclined to start screaming “Stasi!” and instead dismiss this sort of thing as the orders of a deluded, bureaucratic officer class.
But when a dozen burly coppers kick in the door of a Quaker’s Hall “to arrest women sitting in a circle eating hummus and bread sticks”, it makes that stance a lot harder.
Yes, the cops should have powers to disrupt eco-loons like Just Stop Oil, but breaking up six hippies in a peace circle isn’t really porridge.
I have some sympathy for the frontline officers having to do these increasingly daft callouts.
Something has clearly gone very wrong with those giving the orders.
Too many good coppers have been driven out by bad pay and bad morale, after too many of them have ended up in the dock themselves for trying to protect and serve the public.
I have long suspected the chief class of Britain’s police forces are now dominated by over-promoted lifers who stuck around until they were well out of their depth.
How many times have you watched a police press conference and wondered how the blabbering superintendent would survive in any other field of work?
Too many seem to have slavishly followed whatever woke trend has been in fashion for the last few years — and that is coming home to roost.
They seem more concerned about not being criticised by some minority or other, or using the full force of their nannying powers beyond the letter of the law rather than, as the mushroom lady said, applying “common sense”.
Sinister? Or just morons? It’s hard to tell.
But the public is paying attention.
According to Policing in Peril, a timely report from the Onward think tank: “People are so disheartened by the police that too many have stopped reporting crime altogether.”
They cite YouGov polling that a third of voters say they would not report crime due to a lack of confidence the police would solve it.
That rockets to 55 per cent for lower-level crimes such as antisocial behaviour.
And the report concludes that they have a point, citing the fact police performance is at the lowest rates in a decade: “More than half the public have little to no confidence at all in the police to deal with their most fundamental duty — tackling crime.”
And that is directly linked to data showing too many people think the police “prioritise the wrong activities”.
Hertfordshire Police nicked parents Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine for complaining on a WhatsApp group about their local school[/caption]
Four in ten say cops are more interested in being “woke” than solving crimes.
In a focus group conducted for the Independent Office for Police Conduct, one punter said police “don’t respond to crimes that ordinary people suffer from. They only respond to allegations of hate crime”.
A view, I suspect, that is shared by a fair few more out there. So hence it was so disappointing to see the Home Secretary dither yesterday when quizzed about those poor hummus munchers.
Pleading operational independence, Yvette Cooper waffled about introducing “a new performance framework for the police”.
Presumably that does not include sending half a dozen cops to cuff a mum and dad in front of their kids, but there is no reason she could not just say that.
I don’t remember operational independence being much of an issue when the Government wanted to blue-light Taylor Swift through London after the police outriders had said no.
It’s perfectly acceptable for the minister in charge of the cops to express an opinion that the cops are getting it wrong.
At least Home Office minister Dan Jarvis managed to tell Times Radio: “We have a long-standing tradition of the right to protest, of free speech — they are important foundations of the democratic process.”
But he let himself down by quickly adding: “It’s not helpful for me to give a running commentary.”
I think it would be a very helpful thing for him to do.
After all, it was the politicians that gave the cops these sweeping powers and have a responsibility for making sure they are implemented properly.
It’s time for the Government to throw the book at the cops before any more public faith in the police is lost.
KEMI’S CANDIDATE GAFF
AN awkward moment when Kemi Badenoch arrived at the Siemens train factory in Yorkshire recently to campaign with the Conservative hopeful for Hull & East Riding mayor.
The Tory leader had clearly never seen a photograph of Anne Handley before as she walked straight past her.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch failed to recognise Conservative hopeful for Hull & East Riding mayor Anne Handley[/caption]
It took a member of Siemens staff to step in and introduce Kemi to her own candidate and explain who she was.
DEREGULATION DERAILED IN EX-TRUSS SEAT
“WE on this side of the House are serious about taking the action needed to grow our economy,” said Rachel Reeves at last week’s Spring Statement.
So how is Labour’s big planning deregulation going down in reality?
South West Norfolk MP Terry Jermy has not got the memo over his own government’s pro-build, pro-growth agenda[/caption]
Thursday will see one of the most contentious planning applications of recent years being decided by Norfolk councillors over a pig and poultry farm – worth tens of millions – in Liz Truss’s former seat.
What Liz once called the “Anti-Growth Coalition”, including the WWF and the ecologists behind the infamous HS2 bat tunnel, will all be there to argue for turning down the planning permission.
And cheering them along will be the Labour MP who turned over her 26,000 majority last year.
It seems South West Norfolk newbie Terry Jermy has not got the memo over his own government’s pro-build, pro-growth agenda, remaining one of the biggest critics of the major local investment project.
