It remains a mystery to me how the Conservative Party, especially at the "grassroots", accepted the metropolitan elite view of policing as the last unreformed public institution and simply said nowt. I would include the many local councillors and others, yes, even those were elected to be a PCC. First, it was reform and then cuts to funding. My own local police had to "save" £27million this year. Will anyone say loudly what should we stop doing then Home Secretary etc?
Spot on as ever Dom. The crisis in policing, as you say, has been brought on from 1989 onwards, slowly gathering speed as the Job we all loved careered, increasingly out of control, downhill, until the inevitable point of no return, when everything crashes and burns. The police have lost the support of politicians from all sides, police management (sic) is a joke, the IOPC shine a bright light into already lit corners and pillory the boys and girls on the street for doing their job. Unless and until the Government of the day says 'enough is enough' (unlikely, I know) the public will continue to get the service they are granted, not what they need.
A great if not a little depressing read (you can have both together). Can’t argue with your analysis, no it won’t be so bad, but it will not be good for any police officer trying to preserve the peace and protect the public without fear or favour....
Today the HMIC have advised that 22 of the 43 forces/services are inadequate. The only positive is that GMP are doing much better thanks to their Chief Constable Stephen Watson. He seems to have something quite rare in chief officers these days, a backbone!
Happy New Year and thank you Dom for allowing my cathartic release!
HNY Dom, I have at last found someone with an equally jaundiced view of the future as me ( and all the other members of Facebook group “Police Life”, shameless plug).
I cannot understand how things have become so bad since I retired in 2002, when we still more or less ran the streets, and phone cameras and CCTV were not relentlessly recording officers dealing with every incident.
Is it failure of education in social and moral responsibility (bearing in mind my youth was in the swinging Sixties when rebellion was an art form), failure in parenting or failure in government, maybe all three.
I would like to see a recognition of the need for a pendulum swing back to the times of tough policing supported by a government with backbone. I never thought I would agree with my father calling for a return to National Service, but how else do we impose backbone and a moral compass in the youth who will be ruling us in our dotage?
I look on my offspring’s and their offspring’s futures with concern. Random acts of violence and breakdown of community cohesion are everywhere and risk to personal safety unfettered by prevention or enforcement has never been higher.
Another nail hit on the head and whilst this could be seen as a depressing and hard read I found my self chuckling out loud a few times as yours and my view of things clicked in sync again.
We are watching a broken system falter and stutter hoping it doesn’t finally pack in for good. No one is providing satisfying or even hopeful ideas for change to repair the damage done. Sadly everyone is pointing their fingers at each other at the top while those at the bottom don’t have time or support to spread themselves across any thicker over the ever increasing issues that appear daily. It’s a few butterfly clips over a wound when proper stitches are needed.
Happy New Year to you and your other readers, it will prove to be the most interesting for a while as war continues and polarised sides are taken by the less informed. Thank you for your articles this year and I look forward to your future ones.
Another insightful read mate! Some of your musings will hold true some won’t, no idea which though I suspect the odious toad that is the leader of the (current) opposition will likely defeat Roland Rat.
Oh, and for anyone that has read this far - read Red Labyrinth it’s good!
It remains a mystery to me how the Conservative Party, especially at the "grassroots", accepted the metropolitan elite view of policing as the last unreformed public institution and simply said nowt. I would include the many local councillors and others, yes, even those were elected to be a PCC. First, it was reform and then cuts to funding. My own local police had to "save" £27million this year. Will anyone say loudly what should we stop doing then Home Secretary etc?
Spot on as ever Dom. The crisis in policing, as you say, has been brought on from 1989 onwards, slowly gathering speed as the Job we all loved careered, increasingly out of control, downhill, until the inevitable point of no return, when everything crashes and burns. The police have lost the support of politicians from all sides, police management (sic) is a joke, the IOPC shine a bright light into already lit corners and pillory the boys and girls on the street for doing their job. Unless and until the Government of the day says 'enough is enough' (unlikely, I know) the public will continue to get the service they are granted, not what they need.
A great if not a little depressing read (you can have both together). Can’t argue with your analysis, no it won’t be so bad, but it will not be good for any police officer trying to preserve the peace and protect the public without fear or favour....
Today the HMIC have advised that 22 of the 43 forces/services are inadequate. The only positive is that GMP are doing much better thanks to their Chief Constable Stephen Watson. He seems to have something quite rare in chief officers these days, a backbone!
Happy New Year and thank you Dom for allowing my cathartic release!
Dom. Bought your latest novel and enjoying tremendously.
HNY Dom, I have at last found someone with an equally jaundiced view of the future as me ( and all the other members of Facebook group “Police Life”, shameless plug).
I cannot understand how things have become so bad since I retired in 2002, when we still more or less ran the streets, and phone cameras and CCTV were not relentlessly recording officers dealing with every incident.
Is it failure of education in social and moral responsibility (bearing in mind my youth was in the swinging Sixties when rebellion was an art form), failure in parenting or failure in government, maybe all three.
I would like to see a recognition of the need for a pendulum swing back to the times of tough policing supported by a government with backbone. I never thought I would agree with my father calling for a return to National Service, but how else do we impose backbone and a moral compass in the youth who will be ruling us in our dotage?
I look on my offspring’s and their offspring’s futures with concern. Random acts of violence and breakdown of community cohesion are everywhere and risk to personal safety unfettered by prevention or enforcement has never been higher.
I hope I am wrong for all our sakes.
A brilliant summary! Absolutely spot on! Interesting times ahead… Thankfully I’ll be retiring in the coming months (ill-health)
The Tories have destroyed this country… I’ll stop at that… For now…
Another nail hit on the head and whilst this could be seen as a depressing and hard read I found my self chuckling out loud a few times as yours and my view of things clicked in sync again.
We are watching a broken system falter and stutter hoping it doesn’t finally pack in for good. No one is providing satisfying or even hopeful ideas for change to repair the damage done. Sadly everyone is pointing their fingers at each other at the top while those at the bottom don’t have time or support to spread themselves across any thicker over the ever increasing issues that appear daily. It’s a few butterfly clips over a wound when proper stitches are needed.
Happy New Year to you and your other readers, it will prove to be the most interesting for a while as war continues and polarised sides are taken by the less informed. Thank you for your articles this year and I look forward to your future ones.
Another insightful read mate! Some of your musings will hold true some won’t, no idea which though I suspect the odious toad that is the leader of the (current) opposition will likely defeat Roland Rat.
Oh, and for anyone that has read this far - read Red Labyrinth it’s good!