Here at Protect Our Police.Co.Uk we are acutely aware that Policing Reform and Cuts to front line were being planned. Here we ask Dave James Joint Branch Board Secretary of Devon & Cornwall Police what he was considering 2 years ago, May 2009.

 

“So here we are at the end of the first decade in a new millennium. It’s always difficult in the mind without the benefit of books and learning aides, to recall the exact moment an event in history actually occurred. So it will be, when we look back 10 or perhaps 20 years from now and try and identify the moment of death of the British Police Service. It’s actually happening as I type (yes I know the usual rock throwers and media cynics will deride the idea). In much the same way as large mammals can be overtaken and consumed by army ants, so the Office of Constable, the very bedrock of Policing is being consumed by the relentless march of that most dreaded term ‘workforce modernization’.

I know those who drive this agenda will accuse me of over dramatization and cynicism, however when you look hard enough it’s there for all to see. ACPO and the Home Office want you to remain sedated so you don’t notice or feel the painful destruction of the finest Police Service in the world. Like a once proud animal of the forest the British Bobby is slowly being walked to the slaughterhouse, blindfolded of course to prevent us panicking. What do the public think of all of this? Well of course in some respects they probably haven’t noticed or are too worried about recessions, money and jobs to even worry. Alas, they have watched us slowly disappear from engagement on the streets as a service so that new bastion of the Home Office can take over, the Community Support Officer.

I can recall a time when such tasks were conducted by Police Constables in helmets and long coats. I actually did it. We patrolled and actually spoke to people, called into shops and said hello, stopped and chatted with those who had time. We actually attended crime scenes and reassured people, not recorded the crime over the phone just so someone could claim on Insurance. We felt that we too had been burgled or robbed or assaulted; we took it personally; it meant something. We would walk softly and quietly, more often than not, alone, through dark unlit streets unafraid of the world around us, safe in the knowledge our Office was respected. That if attacked, the Courts would support us and the public would be horrified to read of a Constable being assaulted. Alas violence and it’s reporting and dramtisation in Film and TV, means it’s now just an accepted aspect of modern life and the reporting of it just so much Fish and chip wrapping, no matter whom you are.

Meanwhile we frantically attempt to keep up with yet another Home Office diktat invented by those who have no comprehension of police work other than what they’ve seen on TV and heard from their masters. Remember no idea is too stupid, no suggestion too daft, no leap too far. The apparatchiks have full control at Marsham Street SW1. It’s still not too late we don’t have to police by telephone we can recover there are still those in the service who can remember a time when we actually felt affronted some miscreant had the cheek to commit crime on our patch. In WW2 American GI’s were portrayed by the media as overpaid and over here; they all too often portray us as overpaid, incompetent and too violent, to be allowed to continue to exist in our present form; we need taming, teaching a lesson and being brought into line.

Yes, yes I know it’s all just so much hot air, just someone who probably needs to retire spouting off and swinging the lamp about days gone by, how the service wasn’t like this when I joined blah blah blah. Well sadly it wasn’t and not all I see being thrown out with the baby’s bath water is bad, not everything needs changing, a lot of what we did was good, a lot of what we do is good, am I too emotive probably, too passionate I hope so, too optimistic definitely. So let’s pull up the juggernaut and say enough is enough. We can evolve, we can change let’s make sure we become the Lion and not the amoeba!”

 

We will leave you to make up your own minds who has become the Lion and who the Amoeba is!

 

What is clear is that we have to continue the education of MPs and the wider community. Please visit YOUR MP as soon as possible or at least during the Police and Negotiating Boards period of negotiating until 26th July!

Ask your MP what they know about the Hutton, Winsor and Neyroud reports plus the 20% Cuts then ask what they intend to do about them. Finally if what you are saying falls on deaf ears tell them how you, your family, friends and colleagues are likely to vote in the next election! They may just listen!

 

This will be a bimonthly article from Dave next one due in July.

 

What’s YOUR view?

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Our thanks to Dave James JBB Secretary from Devon & Cornwall