Lisa Townsend is the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey.
Following the loss of life of Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch to whom all law enforcement officials took their oaths, we have now seen the easiest of British policing. From the second crowds started gathering at Royal Palaces and residences throughout the UK, via yesterday’s procession and funeral, officers have proven what is supposed by the phrases ‘policing by consent’.
Most policing in our nation is, mercifully, uneventful. Final Friday, two officers on routine patrol with no cause to consider their day can be not like another, had been stabbed in Leicester Sq.. One has probably life-altering accidents after she was stabbed within the arm, the opposite was stabbed within the neck. The suspect, now in custody, was stopped from persevering with the ‘frenzied assault’ by Taser and survives to face his day in courtroom. In lots of components of what we contemplate the civilised world, it could in all chance have ended very in a different way as a result of both one or each events would have been armed.
That our officers don’t routinely carry weapons makes the taking pictures of an unarmed 24-year-old black man in London by a Met officer uncommon and regarding. The response that it has provoked additionally tells us rather a lot about British policing. An IOPC investigation is underway and so no matter what we predict could have been the circumstances, during which a younger man misplaced his life and an officer is left with life-long reminiscences of the occasion, we should await the result and keep away from speculating on who was proper or improper. However, we should replicate on the response from these each inside and outdoors of policing.
The black neighborhood in London and past are eager to seek out solutions, as all of us must be. The Police Federation, who characterize over 130,000 rank and file officers in England and Wales, issued a robust assertion following the concerned officer’s suspension, questioning whether or not it was in one of the best pursuits of justice or as a substitute based mostly on “public notion”. I share their concern that the welfare of our officers, who should make life and loss of life selections with much less data than we’d all like, is commonly ignored.
British policing’s comparatively few firearms officers are essentially the most extremely skilled and restrained on the earth. All authorised firearms officers have volunteered for the function, taken half in rigorous and continuous coaching and evaluation – not simply of their expertise but in addition their psychological and bodily well being – and function beneath the express authority of their chief officer. That these officers are critically contemplating whether or not to give up their firearms licenses within the wake of the IOPC response to this taking pictures ought to concern us all and would make London, and our nation, a lot much less secure.
What do these three very separate occasions inform us about our police drive? I attended the early morning briefing for the a whole lot of Surrey and Sussex officers prepared to move out because the Queen’s coffin made its technique to Windsor, via Surrey, from Westminster Abbey. Officers who had are available on relaxation days, travelled to provide mutual help and who would miss watching the historic occasions with their households to verify the general public had been saved secure, and the event’s dignity preserved. To see that many uniformed officers in a single comparatively small house was a spectacle and a privilege.
And but after I scanned the information websites yesterday night, to see if the nation and our county’s largest policing operation in historical past had made the information, I noticed no point out. That is the distinctive, quiet fantastic thing about policing in Britain. It was essentially the most becoming tribute to a girl who gave her life in service to our nation, to whom our officers had, whether or not a long time in the past or in the previous few weeks, pledged themselves.
The identical officers who, no matter what yesterday introduced, will do all of it once more tomorrow, dealing with no matter threats and challenges are thrown at them. We’re fast to criticise. Sometimes, that is for good cause. Some latest incidents have rightly triggered the general public and politicians to problem selections by police leaders and actions by particular person officers. However we should do not forget that unfounded accusations, lazy assumptions, and ignorant hypothesis are damaging, not simply on those that maintain the peace however on all of us.
Our new recruits will take their oath to the King, however policing in Britain will stick with it because it all the time has. This 12 months the 2 hundredth anniversary of Robert Peel first changing into Dwelling Secretary. His phrases “The Police are the Public; the Public the Police” are as true at this time as they had been then.
