Good post Dom. It seems that over the past two'ish years, Israel moved to a more technical surveillance/suppression of the Gaza Strip, following the completion of a 40 mile long 'smart wall' with commensurate increases in technical capability and deployment. I could understand if off the back of this, they scaled down servicing their Human Intelligence assets as Gaza slowly dropped down the risk matrix (relatively). Compounding the problem, might be that the Israeli Intelligence community is not looking for a needle in a haystack, they're looking for a particularly dangerous needle in a box of other dangerous needles... Too much technical Intel, not enough humint and poor focus.
And shutting down the SIS was criminal... topic for another day.
Dom well done on another well written thought provoking article. As the news broke over the weekend, after horror, one of my first thoughts was around what the Intel picture was around the vulnerability of jews in London and if we would see any disorder here.
I was amazed to read that the MPS did not consider what happened at Pita in Golders Green a hate crime. It's been a while since I was in the csu but I thought the hate crime flag went on a cris if someone perceived it to be a hate crime.
The death of Intel units in the MPS and other forces is a dire shame. In the MPS, the cuts to Intel were due to Lord Bernie not understanding how Intel played it's part in effective crime fighting. That's what happens when you are blinkered by the worship of stats. Can't really measure what you are preventing from becoming a problem.
I am in two minds about the dismantling of SB. World class expertise but a significant number of wannabe spooks who didn't do much apart from read and lunch.
I definitely agree that there is a space and value for grown up communicators with common sense who understand communities but the importance of diversity can't be under estimated.
In my time, I saw a lack of diversity make it harder to get the job done. SV teams compromised by random members of the public not connected to the subject. Time wasted completing enquiries when someone with a understanding of the culture could have called BS on a knee jerk reaction to something on a phone download.
For me diversity isn't about being soft and cuddly or "woke". It's about being operationally effective.
As London becomes even more diverse the MPS will need staff who look like and think like its communities to be effective.
Maybe if the bosses covering Golders Green were listening to Jewish officers they wouldnt have put their foot in it with the press release on the Pita restaurant.
SB was indeed a bit of a curate's egg, but the people on 'E' Squad who knew their stuff were genuinely adding value to the big picture (and indeed on the other squads). The other perennial problem was, of course, the department never really fully explained what it did to the rest of the organisation. In an age of self-publicity, that was a problem. But, yes, it could be its own worse enemy.
That's history. All that matters now is the Met doing specialist intelligence work properly. When I retired in 2018, there was scant evidence they were / are.
E squad sound like they were an impressive bunch. I missed the SB boat but i spent some time on 15. Some units still had a SB flavour to them. I predict that the MPS will lose the lead on CT in the coming years. I think the powers at be will remove 15 and make it part of the NCA.
That's down to the MPS bad publicity. Can it be trusted to have national functions when it leaps from crisis to crisis.
I think specialist Intel work has got worse since 2018. It will take a generation to repair Lord Bernie's mayhem.
An insightful & thought provoking piece. I don’t blame Bernie Häagen-Dazs as the sole harbinger of death for intel units.
It started earlier with Blair & Stephenson but it was much more palpable, when the axe swung the second the Olympic Flame was extinguished in 2012. Bernie Two-Dads raison d’etre.
POIU was another victim of the student disorder in Millbank & the subsequent yawning gap created led to poor intel products for Public Order events. The cut & paste by MetIntel & ‘15 did nothing to endear them to the end users - who did the best they could. They soon became adept at operating in those intel vacuums.
I, the crayon muncher, worked with some of the most intelligent yet operationally effective senior PO commanders from all strands of policing (yes including DPS, SO20 & 15) & 90% of the time they all bemoaned the intel reports lack of actionable intelligence. The proverbial chocolate teapot.
Some shocking level of ignorance shown in this thread.
Israel withdrew from Gaza wholesale in 2005, and the Gazans elected Hamas who have had complete control ever since. Israel left large fruit farms, equipment and irrigation systems which Hamas burnt down as one of their first actions. Israel has been providing FREE electricity and water to Gaza EVER SINCE. Gaza has received billions in aid and spent that money on terrorism in stead of feeding its own people. Israel has only prevented DUEL USE GOODS entering. Even the pipes Israel provided to try to fix the sewage problem were cut up to make rockets to fire back. Israel closed the border - why? To prevent a massacre of its citizens. EGYPT also has a border. Why aren’t you asking why Egypt closed it border? Oh yes because it’s not a Jewish country.
The IDF are even now using EVERY means possible to get Gazans to move to safer non combatant designated areas, and do you know what Hamas is doing? Ordering them to stay in the line of fire. Orders given by the way from their luxury houses in QATAR. They are literally hiding behind their own children. Another War Crime.
We firebombed Dresden, we drowned the Ruhr Valley and we carpet bombed everything in between. It's what you do when you are at war and your life is at stake. You do not provide your enemy with free electricity food and water.
And on the streets of this country, the UK we saw large crowds cheering and celebrating the mass slaughter, rape, be heading and kidnap of children, women, the elderly. Completely copied from the ISIS playbook. Imagine if ISIS supporters came out on mass? And our Police did nothing. As they haven’t. There is NO DIFFERENCE between the rhetoric at Nazi mass rallies in 1939 and that on the streets on the UK over the last few days. Just remember this, when they come for YOUR children, to rape YOUR DAUGHTERS, behead YOUR babies, that you did not stand up for the Jews.
I was obviously horrified by the loss of life in both Israel and Gaza yesterday, but I can't help thinking that to a large degree Israel has brought this on itself. Whilst I am aware that any criticism of the State of Israel is seen as anti semetism is it fair that Israel has effectively introduced apartheid in respect of Palenstinians who by definition are also semites. I'm not sure if I lived in Gaza, which is effectively the largest open air prison in the world, I would not also be attacking the oppressive State of Israel. As a footnote I also served at Stoke Newington where I was closely involved with the Kurdish community. Mainly investigating the criminal factions of the PKK and Dev Sol but also met a number of law abiding Kurds who described appalling oppression by Turkey. I think the point of my argument is that people who are effectively the victims of bullying will eventualy rise up in their own defence.
Well I think we can both agree we aren't going to solve the Middle East in a comments section, but Israel seems, to me, suspiciously over-scrutinised in a way other countries aren't. What happened yesterday wasn't 'war' or a response to 'bullying', it was armed men going into civilian homes and murdering people. We can condemn that without politics, can't we?
“The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli forces so far in 2023 (172) has surpassed the total number killed in all of 2022 (155)," the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office (OCHA).
That’s a lot of people.
“Attacks by Palestinians, including knife, bomb and shooting attacks in central Tel Aviv, downtown Jerusalem and West Bank settlements, killed 29 Israelis in 2022 — including soldiers and civilians” — Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Agreed here! Totally condemn the HAMAS attacks but let’s be honest, with Netanyahu threatening to turn Gaza into rubble (and he will) many innocent lives will be lost in the Palestinian community, and that will create many more supporters for HAMAS, not less. Like all terror groups they are a death cult really that thrives on its martyrs.
Free speech is a funny animal. Even support for terrorism wasn’t clear cut. Was ground commander at the Shi’ite Al Quds day March. At that time ( not sure if it’s the same one) Hezbollah was not a proscribed organisation, Hizbollah External Security Office (ESO) was. Think Sinn Feín/PIRA. Loads of Hezbollah flags… but not ESO, which had a minor difference in the Arabic lettering. How could we tell which was which? I certainly couldn’t but we had loads of negative coverage in the Daily Fail and the like about terrorists flaunting their flags in Central London … Hezbollah flags. Subsequently they had ‘experts’ from SO12/15 on hand to advise, but not then. There was also , apparently, a stated case about support for terrorist groups not chargeable if it was purely passive. Remember back in 1990 we had a big parade from Kilburn to Marble Arch with some participants dressed in black roll neck pullovers, dark glasses and black berets -clearly n support of PIRA. No arrests. No nothing. Free speech, not political uniforms…
Back to Al Quds Day… I had a group of youths wrapping shamargs around their heads. This was three months after 7/7. Got organiser and told him to tell them to desist. Said ‘It’s just them expressing themselves’. I answered they could either take it off or I’d have them nicked for threatening behaviour. They took them off and didn’t put them back on. That was my line in the sand, but had I taken executive action and caused a ruck - would I have been backed? I doubt it. It’s always a balance.
Point being, were those youths seen last weekend seen by police? If they weren’t, it’s unlikely any action could be taken. If it was and caused a riot, then that’s be ‘heavy handed policing’ that the Mail, Mirror etc would be complaining about.
Israel is not an apartheid state. It has two Muslim Arab parties in its Knesset and Arab citizens have equal rights in every single respect. Gaza is completely separate entity under the elected Hamas government. It is entirely self governing. It gets billions of dollars in aid. To be an apologist for heinous crimes by saying the Jews deserved this makes you comparable in moral depravity to Adolf Eichman. When they come for the Jews, and do nothing, just wait till they come for you and your family. Which they will.
Nothing changes, we will always have people from all over the world coming to London and bringing their disputes with them. You'd have to be naive in the extreme to think that all these groups get on with each other. When I moved to a west London borough a head teacher spoke of the 'Balkan Problem' whereby feuds from the old country were carried on over here along with a level of violence she hadn't experienced before.
As you say the dismantling of institutional memory and gathering of low level intelligence coupled with a lack of knowledge about ongoing factional disputes is coming back to bite everyone on the backside. My favourite obscure dispute was being called to a central London church early on a Sunday morning to deal with a dispute between two factions of the Ethiopian Coptic church.
Good piece Dom. a few random ‘stream of consciousness’ points.
With regards to SB, I shall just say that like our late monarch said, “recollections may differ”. Mine definitely do, mine are much more negative, but it’s not my blog, and my experiences WITH SO15 as SLT on a large borough in South London were not necessarily good either. I like to think the old SO12 might have shown more political understanding, but who knows?
The other random point (in support of part of your blog) is this. When I went to said borough on promotion I read that 178 different languages were spoken as first languages at home by pupils in its schools. That’s worth pondering. I tried recalling all the languages I could think of: I stalled at about 25-30… Without being controversial, is that a strength in a community or city or not? I genuinely don’t know. But the point you make is a good one: actually you AREN’T going to get that level of granularity in any police service or force. The community needs good, motivated, sensible and professional peace officers of any background. They’ll never tick all those boxes. The reason some communities don’t come forwards is because the police isn’t seen in their culture as a high status job. If you failed to get into the dustmen you’d join the police in some places (and as an economic migrant from the West Country who is now married to a lady from Catford, I’d include South London in that grouping…) That doesn’t seem to be changing as the community gets three or four generations from the migrant generation either. Again, I simply posit this, I don’t have an answer. But it’s a barrier to recruitment.
Finally, another issue I’d identify, is the tendency of very senior officers to think that an officer patrolling in a reflective jacket (usually with their mate and yacking to them) is ‘High Visibility Policing’. It isn’t. It’s policing in a high vis vest, nothing more. High visibility policing is officers ON FOOT, getting out there, talking to the public, and DEALING WITH WHAT THEY SEE HOWEVER MAJOR OR MINOR. This includes moving on drunks and beggars or illegally parked cars. Minor stuff but stuff that bothers local communities probably more than armed robbery or terrorists do. That’s how you build contacts, that’s how you hear stuff. It’s a skill the Met has lost.
Two weeks ago I went to NYC, fabled home of zero-tolerance policing and compstat. Well, rest assured those days are long gone. The NYPD are very smart looking (at least where I was in Manhattan) other than a difficulty wearing headgear, but a lot of their job seems to consist of standing on fixed points. At 8th and 42, a major intersection where thousands pass an hour, I saw five stood on one corner, chatting to themselves and ignoring anyone else, including beggars panhandling. If I’d been their boss I’d have instructed one to be stood on one corner and talk to the public. If you approached one (found a card left in an ATM and handed it in) they are curt, unfriendly and wholly unprofessional. The Met risks copying them - and a lot of police seem to think the NYPD or LAPD are a vision to aspire to. Like NY London is going down the same rabbit hole of legalising dope. That did nothing for the city’s ambience, and an inactive disengaged and disinterested police adds another layer to the mix.
Another well thought out piece Dom. Interested you mentioned Astana, where I have worked after the job. A strange place, but the people were nice.
I have also applied for jobs in Israel, but I think they might go on hold now. I’m wondering if anywhere is “safe”, as terrorists and crooks can strike anywhere.
But it’s madness that intelligence gathering has been reduced as conflict has increased in places like Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Ukraine, South China Sea, Korea, the list is endless, each of whom have refugees and communities in the UK.
Think it’s time for you to go into politics and become Home Sec!
An interesting read for a non Met person, the knowledge of who got rid of what branch/group/desk is impressive Dom. The important bit (to me) was about the much derided community policing. Feet on the streets, watching, talking and more crucially listening is missing in action. You can analyse, present statistics, set performance targets from a desk, but without CREDIBLE information and intelligence it’s worthless... unless it gets you promoted I suppose....
Stitred up some memories emotions and thoughts ive spent decade trying unsucceszfully to suppress. The rage dragon has been released. Intellectual snobbery and sheer vindictive jealousy killed SB. Aided and abetted by G branch. I admit E squad was far from perfect, same in 1820, but it did what it did better tban anyone else did, then or now. Ctio was a relatively safe refuge from the ravaging inferno of Hayman and his einsattengruppen. Actually did some good work and made some contacts. Never acknowledged of course. Best stop now before i go completely off reservation. If only someone could do say PhD on something like this, now thats an idea.
Good post Dom. It seems that over the past two'ish years, Israel moved to a more technical surveillance/suppression of the Gaza Strip, following the completion of a 40 mile long 'smart wall' with commensurate increases in technical capability and deployment. I could understand if off the back of this, they scaled down servicing their Human Intelligence assets as Gaza slowly dropped down the risk matrix (relatively). Compounding the problem, might be that the Israeli Intelligence community is not looking for a needle in a haystack, they're looking for a particularly dangerous needle in a box of other dangerous needles... Too much technical Intel, not enough humint and poor focus.
And shutting down the SIS was criminal... topic for another day.
Dom well done on another well written thought provoking article. As the news broke over the weekend, after horror, one of my first thoughts was around what the Intel picture was around the vulnerability of jews in London and if we would see any disorder here.
I was amazed to read that the MPS did not consider what happened at Pita in Golders Green a hate crime. It's been a while since I was in the csu but I thought the hate crime flag went on a cris if someone perceived it to be a hate crime.
The death of Intel units in the MPS and other forces is a dire shame. In the MPS, the cuts to Intel were due to Lord Bernie not understanding how Intel played it's part in effective crime fighting. That's what happens when you are blinkered by the worship of stats. Can't really measure what you are preventing from becoming a problem.
I am in two minds about the dismantling of SB. World class expertise but a significant number of wannabe spooks who didn't do much apart from read and lunch.
I definitely agree that there is a space and value for grown up communicators with common sense who understand communities but the importance of diversity can't be under estimated.
In my time, I saw a lack of diversity make it harder to get the job done. SV teams compromised by random members of the public not connected to the subject. Time wasted completing enquiries when someone with a understanding of the culture could have called BS on a knee jerk reaction to something on a phone download.
For me diversity isn't about being soft and cuddly or "woke". It's about being operationally effective.
As London becomes even more diverse the MPS will need staff who look like and think like its communities to be effective.
Maybe if the bosses covering Golders Green were listening to Jewish officers they wouldnt have put their foot in it with the press release on the Pita restaurant.
SB was indeed a bit of a curate's egg, but the people on 'E' Squad who knew their stuff were genuinely adding value to the big picture (and indeed on the other squads). The other perennial problem was, of course, the department never really fully explained what it did to the rest of the organisation. In an age of self-publicity, that was a problem. But, yes, it could be its own worse enemy.
That's history. All that matters now is the Met doing specialist intelligence work properly. When I retired in 2018, there was scant evidence they were / are.
E squad sound like they were an impressive bunch. I missed the SB boat but i spent some time on 15. Some units still had a SB flavour to them. I predict that the MPS will lose the lead on CT in the coming years. I think the powers at be will remove 15 and make it part of the NCA.
That's down to the MPS bad publicity. Can it be trusted to have national functions when it leaps from crisis to crisis.
I think specialist Intel work has got worse since 2018. It will take a generation to repair Lord Bernie's mayhem.
An insightful & thought provoking piece. I don’t blame Bernie Häagen-Dazs as the sole harbinger of death for intel units.
It started earlier with Blair & Stephenson but it was much more palpable, when the axe swung the second the Olympic Flame was extinguished in 2012. Bernie Two-Dads raison d’etre.
POIU was another victim of the student disorder in Millbank & the subsequent yawning gap created led to poor intel products for Public Order events. The cut & paste by MetIntel & ‘15 did nothing to endear them to the end users - who did the best they could. They soon became adept at operating in those intel vacuums.
I, the crayon muncher, worked with some of the most intelligent yet operationally effective senior PO commanders from all strands of policing (yes including DPS, SO20 & 15) & 90% of the time they all bemoaned the intel reports lack of actionable intelligence. The proverbial chocolate teapot.
Some shocking level of ignorance shown in this thread.
Israel withdrew from Gaza wholesale in 2005, and the Gazans elected Hamas who have had complete control ever since. Israel left large fruit farms, equipment and irrigation systems which Hamas burnt down as one of their first actions. Israel has been providing FREE electricity and water to Gaza EVER SINCE. Gaza has received billions in aid and spent that money on terrorism in stead of feeding its own people. Israel has only prevented DUEL USE GOODS entering. Even the pipes Israel provided to try to fix the sewage problem were cut up to make rockets to fire back. Israel closed the border - why? To prevent a massacre of its citizens. EGYPT also has a border. Why aren’t you asking why Egypt closed it border? Oh yes because it’s not a Jewish country.
The IDF are even now using EVERY means possible to get Gazans to move to safer non combatant designated areas, and do you know what Hamas is doing? Ordering them to stay in the line of fire. Orders given by the way from their luxury houses in QATAR. They are literally hiding behind their own children. Another War Crime.
We firebombed Dresden, we drowned the Ruhr Valley and we carpet bombed everything in between. It's what you do when you are at war and your life is at stake. You do not provide your enemy with free electricity food and water.
And on the streets of this country, the UK we saw large crowds cheering and celebrating the mass slaughter, rape, be heading and kidnap of children, women, the elderly. Completely copied from the ISIS playbook. Imagine if ISIS supporters came out on mass? And our Police did nothing. As they haven’t. There is NO DIFFERENCE between the rhetoric at Nazi mass rallies in 1939 and that on the streets on the UK over the last few days. Just remember this, when they come for YOUR children, to rape YOUR DAUGHTERS, behead YOUR babies, that you did not stand up for the Jews.
Amen
I was obviously horrified by the loss of life in both Israel and Gaza yesterday, but I can't help thinking that to a large degree Israel has brought this on itself. Whilst I am aware that any criticism of the State of Israel is seen as anti semetism is it fair that Israel has effectively introduced apartheid in respect of Palenstinians who by definition are also semites. I'm not sure if I lived in Gaza, which is effectively the largest open air prison in the world, I would not also be attacking the oppressive State of Israel. As a footnote I also served at Stoke Newington where I was closely involved with the Kurdish community. Mainly investigating the criminal factions of the PKK and Dev Sol but also met a number of law abiding Kurds who described appalling oppression by Turkey. I think the point of my argument is that people who are effectively the victims of bullying will eventualy rise up in their own defence.
Well I think we can both agree we aren't going to solve the Middle East in a comments section, but Israel seems, to me, suspiciously over-scrutinised in a way other countries aren't. What happened yesterday wasn't 'war' or a response to 'bullying', it was armed men going into civilian homes and murdering people. We can condemn that without politics, can't we?
Personally I don't think there is enough scrutiny of Israel.
“The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli forces so far in 2023 (172) has surpassed the total number killed in all of 2022 (155)," the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office (OCHA).
That’s a lot of people.
“Attacks by Palestinians, including knife, bomb and shooting attacks in central Tel Aviv, downtown Jerusalem and West Bank settlements, killed 29 Israelis in 2022 — including soldiers and civilians” — Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry.
That’s a lot of people too.
Agreed here! Totally condemn the HAMAS attacks but let’s be honest, with Netanyahu threatening to turn Gaza into rubble (and he will) many innocent lives will be lost in the Palestinian community, and that will create many more supporters for HAMAS, not less. Like all terror groups they are a death cult really that thrives on its martyrs.
Hear hear. I don’t see much condemnation for the rejoicing and waving of Palestinian flags in Acton, akin to a football victory, either. Funny that.
Free speech is a funny animal. Even support for terrorism wasn’t clear cut. Was ground commander at the Shi’ite Al Quds day March. At that time ( not sure if it’s the same one) Hezbollah was not a proscribed organisation, Hizbollah External Security Office (ESO) was. Think Sinn Feín/PIRA. Loads of Hezbollah flags… but not ESO, which had a minor difference in the Arabic lettering. How could we tell which was which? I certainly couldn’t but we had loads of negative coverage in the Daily Fail and the like about terrorists flaunting their flags in Central London … Hezbollah flags. Subsequently they had ‘experts’ from SO12/15 on hand to advise, but not then. There was also , apparently, a stated case about support for terrorist groups not chargeable if it was purely passive. Remember back in 1990 we had a big parade from Kilburn to Marble Arch with some participants dressed in black roll neck pullovers, dark glasses and black berets -clearly n support of PIRA. No arrests. No nothing. Free speech, not political uniforms…
Back to Al Quds Day… I had a group of youths wrapping shamargs around their heads. This was three months after 7/7. Got organiser and told him to tell them to desist. Said ‘It’s just them expressing themselves’. I answered they could either take it off or I’d have them nicked for threatening behaviour. They took them off and didn’t put them back on. That was my line in the sand, but had I taken executive action and caused a ruck - would I have been backed? I doubt it. It’s always a balance.
Point being, were those youths seen last weekend seen by police? If they weren’t, it’s unlikely any action could be taken. If it was and caused a riot, then that’s be ‘heavy handed policing’ that the Mail, Mirror etc would be complaining about.
Israel is not an apartheid state. It has two Muslim Arab parties in its Knesset and Arab citizens have equal rights in every single respect. Gaza is completely separate entity under the elected Hamas government. It is entirely self governing. It gets billions of dollars in aid. To be an apologist for heinous crimes by saying the Jews deserved this makes you comparable in moral depravity to Adolf Eichman. When they come for the Jews, and do nothing, just wait till they come for you and your family. Which they will.
Nothing changes, we will always have people from all over the world coming to London and bringing their disputes with them. You'd have to be naive in the extreme to think that all these groups get on with each other. When I moved to a west London borough a head teacher spoke of the 'Balkan Problem' whereby feuds from the old country were carried on over here along with a level of violence she hadn't experienced before.
As you say the dismantling of institutional memory and gathering of low level intelligence coupled with a lack of knowledge about ongoing factional disputes is coming back to bite everyone on the backside. My favourite obscure dispute was being called to a central London church early on a Sunday morning to deal with a dispute between two factions of the Ethiopian Coptic church.
Good piece Dom. a few random ‘stream of consciousness’ points.
With regards to SB, I shall just say that like our late monarch said, “recollections may differ”. Mine definitely do, mine are much more negative, but it’s not my blog, and my experiences WITH SO15 as SLT on a large borough in South London were not necessarily good either. I like to think the old SO12 might have shown more political understanding, but who knows?
The other random point (in support of part of your blog) is this. When I went to said borough on promotion I read that 178 different languages were spoken as first languages at home by pupils in its schools. That’s worth pondering. I tried recalling all the languages I could think of: I stalled at about 25-30… Without being controversial, is that a strength in a community or city or not? I genuinely don’t know. But the point you make is a good one: actually you AREN’T going to get that level of granularity in any police service or force. The community needs good, motivated, sensible and professional peace officers of any background. They’ll never tick all those boxes. The reason some communities don’t come forwards is because the police isn’t seen in their culture as a high status job. If you failed to get into the dustmen you’d join the police in some places (and as an economic migrant from the West Country who is now married to a lady from Catford, I’d include South London in that grouping…) That doesn’t seem to be changing as the community gets three or four generations from the migrant generation either. Again, I simply posit this, I don’t have an answer. But it’s a barrier to recruitment.
Finally, another issue I’d identify, is the tendency of very senior officers to think that an officer patrolling in a reflective jacket (usually with their mate and yacking to them) is ‘High Visibility Policing’. It isn’t. It’s policing in a high vis vest, nothing more. High visibility policing is officers ON FOOT, getting out there, talking to the public, and DEALING WITH WHAT THEY SEE HOWEVER MAJOR OR MINOR. This includes moving on drunks and beggars or illegally parked cars. Minor stuff but stuff that bothers local communities probably more than armed robbery or terrorists do. That’s how you build contacts, that’s how you hear stuff. It’s a skill the Met has lost.
Two weeks ago I went to NYC, fabled home of zero-tolerance policing and compstat. Well, rest assured those days are long gone. The NYPD are very smart looking (at least where I was in Manhattan) other than a difficulty wearing headgear, but a lot of their job seems to consist of standing on fixed points. At 8th and 42, a major intersection where thousands pass an hour, I saw five stood on one corner, chatting to themselves and ignoring anyone else, including beggars panhandling. If I’d been their boss I’d have instructed one to be stood on one corner and talk to the public. If you approached one (found a card left in an ATM and handed it in) they are curt, unfriendly and wholly unprofessional. The Met risks copying them - and a lot of police seem to think the NYPD or LAPD are a vision to aspire to. Like NY London is going down the same rabbit hole of legalising dope. That did nothing for the city’s ambience, and an inactive disengaged and disinterested police adds another layer to the mix.
Another well thought out piece Dom. Interested you mentioned Astana, where I have worked after the job. A strange place, but the people were nice.
I have also applied for jobs in Israel, but I think they might go on hold now. I’m wondering if anywhere is “safe”, as terrorists and crooks can strike anywhere.
But it’s madness that intelligence gathering has been reduced as conflict has increased in places like Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Ukraine, South China Sea, Korea, the list is endless, each of whom have refugees and communities in the UK.
Think it’s time for you to go into politics and become Home Sec!
Intelligence adage; better to know everything about nothing than nothing about everything !
An interesting read for a non Met person, the knowledge of who got rid of what branch/group/desk is impressive Dom. The important bit (to me) was about the much derided community policing. Feet on the streets, watching, talking and more crucially listening is missing in action. You can analyse, present statistics, set performance targets from a desk, but without CREDIBLE information and intelligence it’s worthless... unless it gets you promoted I suppose....
Stitred up some memories emotions and thoughts ive spent decade trying unsucceszfully to suppress. The rage dragon has been released. Intellectual snobbery and sheer vindictive jealousy killed SB. Aided and abetted by G branch. I admit E squad was far from perfect, same in 1820, but it did what it did better tban anyone else did, then or now. Ctio was a relatively safe refuge from the ravaging inferno of Hayman and his einsattengruppen. Actually did some good work and made some contacts. Never acknowledged of course. Best stop now before i go completely off reservation. If only someone could do say PhD on something like this, now thats an idea.
Another excellent piece Dom. Highlights the short sightedness of the SMT yet again.