Policing is not Working
The only people it seems who don’t think that British policing is in crisis are those in charge of policing the British Isles.
In the UK we police by consent, with the agreement of the majority who fundamentally, historically, have agreed to abide by the laws of the land, to live their lives inside a set of acceptable behaviours, long established.
Historically, with a few exceptions this policing model has served us reasonably satisfactorily.
We have moved away from local policing. As a boy in the 1970’s and 80’s we had a local village bobby who lived in the village, in the police house, and was always out and about cycling around the village, an intricate part of village life.
Sometime in the mid 80’s it was concluded that village bobbies were no longer needed and they were removed, the police houses sold off to redirect funds into God knows what.
Villages were never and never will be the problem for effective policing. A few wayward kids in a village will soon be shamed on the village Facebook page, the modern village ‘stocks’ if you will.
Today, our police have surrendered our streets to criminals, to shoplifters, to muggers, drug gangs and dealers.
Shoplifting in 2023 is reported as being up 35% but, and it’s a big but, only 30% of shopkeepers bother to report shoplifting! The true figure is frightening.
Shoplifting Up 35%
The actual rate of the increase in shoplifting is off the scale. Some shops are already in financial difficulty because of their theft losses. We face more store closures, with retailers switching to online only as their solution to the problem. However, the US which tends to lead trends which subsequently cross the Atlantic are already on this path and are seeing delivery drivers attacked and vans regularly looted.
The best most police forces can do these days is to provide a crime number when you are burgled so you can claim on your insurance if of course you can still afford to pay the premiums.
Our police force has always been stretched, there never were in all reality halcyon days of little crime and ample officers to police the crime that did exist.
So, what has led to the dramatic increase in crime on our streets. I would suggest that it is a combination of factors. Firstly, the austerity cuts in 2010 that reduced policing numbers and saw 20,000 experienced officers leave the force. Additionally, as the economy deteriorates, crime rises. Poor people steal the things they can’t afford to buy.
Across the last 15 years we have also seen a significant demographic shift with 10 million migrants adding to our population. Ten million migrants, not all of whom have fully signed up to our public contract of policing by consent.
Some of these migrants have already made the news for the sometimes-horrific crimes they have committed. I would venture to suggest that we already had enough crime in the UK without feeling the need to import more criminals. I would also suggest that any migrant committing a crime in the UK ought to be deported back from whence they came and if that is not possible then they ought to be taken directly to a newly constructed prison camp on one of our many empty, islands; Falklands, Ascension, Scilly, etc. From there we would be happy to repatriate them back to where they came from as soon as that information was forthcoming.
Criminal Gangs Running Wild
In London, organised crime gangs are stealing from shops on an industrial scale. The police have effectively legalised the theft of goods under the value of £200. They have removed the deterrent for stealing, creating a business opportunity for hundreds, thousands of low-level criminals who now face little or no downside to stealing from high street shops.
The police don’t attend when a theft is reported. They are not interested, or have been told not to be interested. I’m sure they have plenty of other crimes to deal with; drug dealing, stabbings, the majority of which are inter drug gang turf wars.
Drugs are responsible for a significant proportion of the crime on our streets. People either stealing and mugging to fund their drug habits, or drug dealers fighting with other gangs.
Drugs are prevalent because we have lax border controls, which again are policed by consent rather than with sufficient force to enable a level of law and order we would actually find tolerable.
Most of the drugs in the UK are manufactured abroad, Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana. While there are some small-scale producers in the UK, slowing the free flow across our borders would reduce the level of crime in the longer term. There is after all little point fighting over drug territory if you have no product to sell.
With less drugs you would have less gangs and less gangs would lead to less youngsters getting involved in gangs and the associated crime that comes with it.
When gangs are caught, when prolific thieves are caught, we don’t have the prison capacity to lock them up.
Prison Reform
Our societal culture has moved from locking bad people up in order to protect good people to thinking we can rehabilitate criminals and thus reduce rates of reoffending. I would postulate that the intelligence, if that is the word is somewhat misguided with regard to achieving any measurable success.
The only way to deter crime is to present a deterrent and I don’t mean the threat of sending a handful to Rwanda! I mean an actual deterrent. Five years for carrying a knife without parole would deter a significant number of knife carriers. Fifteen years with no parole for using a knife & a full life sentence for killing with a knife. An actually life sentence, until they die, not a Labradors life as is now often the case.
Pulling a knife or threatening a first responder should also carry a strong sentence so we can protect our essential workers without them living in fear for their own lives.
We need more prisons. We need more beds in prisons. I am not too concerned about the standard of living in prison, we have progressively made prisons more like hotels in some cases. TVs in cells, phones and too many freedoms. First and foremost, prison needs to be returned to being a deterrent, an unpleasant place to be, rather than a home from home.
Going to prison is a choice that people make (in the main. Excluding the Post office Scandal Sub Postmasters of course). The vast majority of inmates have made a decision to risk going there.
When people find themselves in prison we should give them a second chance. Imagine if you will the situation where we invest in education to teach prisoners useable, saleable skills & trades. This would give them the opportunity to go straight, to contribute positively to society when released.
Everyone Deserves a Second Chance
They would earn a reduction is their sentence by gaining qualifications and skills, rather than receiving a 50% sentence reduction the moment they are sentenced.
If, following that successful training they reoffend, then their next prison sentence would be doubled with no parole, providing a significant deterrent against reoffending and passing the responsibility for their liberty back to them.
The initial halving of sentences would be removed and parole would be earned through education.
We would need to build more prison capacity, at least in the short term. Within a decade we would need less capacity as crime rates fall.
Once we have adequate prison capacity to detain everyone needed, the police would be able to start making progress. Currently they rearrest the same repeat offenders time and time again only to see them back on the streets.
Either we take on crime and criminals or we surrender our streets to a class of people who have no respect for our laws, our way of life, or for the invisible social contract that we agree to abide by.
Some migrants arriving in the UK do not share all of our social values. Some come for countries that espouse very different values to our own. They arrive and see opportunities to take what they want without any repercussions.
If I was in charge of some struggling, developing country and saw an opportunity to empty my prisons of the worst in society by giving them some money and setting them off on a trip to the UK. Would I do that? Yes, of course I would. It is a win, win for any cash strapped country to get shot of their criminal class, empty their prisons and reduce their costs. If you truly believe that the only economic migrants making the journey to the UK are the best and the brightest, then I have a bridge to sell you.
Policing Recruitment
The police need to know that they are actually taking criminals off the streets, not just inconveniencing them for a day.
Police recruitment is also an issue. Since the degree requirement has been in place we have attracted a different type of police officer. Previously we recruited many police officers from the military. Ex-soldiers in the main made great policemen. They already had a level of discipline and order that is rarely found in university students.
Life experience creates a level of self-confidence and control making many of our military veterans ideally suited to policing our streets.
Our police need to be respected and that is difficult to achieve when some officers are face painted and seemingly more interested in appearing in TikTok dance videos, others kneeling for the latest cause celebre. Our police attend events but do not actively police crimes as they happen. Racist slogans and chants are seen and heard on the streets of London on every Pro-Palestinian march, blurring the lines between demands for a cease fire in Gaza and support for Hamas and antisemitism.
The police, rather than risking disorder take the passive route of filming offences and offenders and then, after the event apparently picking the offenders up and punishing them appropriately. That is what we are told happens, but does it? Really?
Different sections of society seem to the casual observer to be being policed differently. A much smaller group celebrating St Georges Day were kettled before their event even began, by a much more forthright police presence. They were described as being a far right, football supporting crowd. If they were not kettled would any scuffles have occurred? I suspect not.
I am certain that policing Britain’s streets at the moment is far from easy, but the police appear to be making the process harder by projecting double standards in their approach depending on the crowd they are policing.
Policing without Fear or Favour
Part of our social contract is to police without fear of favour, but it may well look to be anything but fair to some at present.
A few years ago we had a situation during the BLM marches where activists were climbing on and defacing monuments in London. They were allowed to do so. A week later, a large group of veterans attended to defend the monuments from further desecration at the next BLM march and were met with helmeted riot police. Two tier policing by any standard.
If we want to cut crime rates, then tinkering around the edges of law and order will not deliver. We need our police force to present a fair but firm wall to criminals, all criminals. To do that we need to increase police numbers, increase the quality of police officers, change the mindset of decision and policy makers in the police force. We need more prison cells and we need a judiciary that is committed to punishing criminals first and foremost.
Our government seem to think that creating new laws is the answer, but no law is worth the paper it is written on if we don’t have effective police officers in sufficient numbers to enforce those laws.
We don’t need new laws, we just need to enforce existing laws, equally.
We need to cut the volume of drugs on our streets by increasing our customs controls. As an added bonus we might even discover more illegal economic migrants in the backs of the lorries we searched!
Our customs checks are not up to standard or any where near adequate. Currently we only have the ability to stop and search one lorry from each ferry. If you were a smuggler, you might conclude that the best way to get your goods into the country unimpeded would therefore be to put three lorries on each ferry. In the worst-case scenario, you would lose one third of your product, cutting your margin for sure, but not stopping your business model from being highly profitable.
Weak Policing Encourages Criminals
If I can see that obvious work around then why can’t our Border Force professionals? Surely, they are in the business of protecting our borders, protecting our citizens from illegal drugs, weapons and goods, from potentially violent, illegal, undocumented migrants.
Policing in the UK looks to all intents and purposes like it is being led by the progressive left. Liberal policing does not deter crime or criminals. We are losing control of our streets. Everyone, regardless of race, sex, colour or creed should be able to safely walk Britain’s streets and if they are not safe to do so then we have a problem.
Firm but fair policing of our streets is the only way to protect the public and protect the property of honest, law-abiding people.
We currently are attempting to police by camera. Cameras do not prevent crime. Much of the footage is too low grade to act as evidence and we don’t have the man power to view the footage for all but the most serious crimes. A camera will not stop you from being murdered, at best it will help to find your killer so that your nearest and dearest can have some closure and see your killer given a pitifully lenient prison service. The current system does not work for the public.
More, better trained and vetted police, more prison spaces, stricter sentences and judges, stricter border controls, this is how we take our streets back. This will cost money, but if we don’t invest now, we will be surrendering our streets to criminals and ever rising crime.
To pay for this investment we cut the civil service paper pushers, diversity roles, HS2, many unnecessary & expensive quangos, wasted government spending in every department, foreign aid and by making work pay which will in turn cut the ballooning welfare bill and boost GDP.
The current system isn’t working, it isn’t magically going to start working without significant reform, without Reform UK.