Policing the people.

In a report on the BBC this evening, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police was reported to be an adherent of the belief that policing only really works because the police are ordinary people. We are the Police and the Police are us.

Hopefully we will never have an armed Police Force in Britain. The cost of that is that today two young, unarmed, women were brutally murdered by some thuggish animal who ought to be put down like a mad dog. I suppose that the wonder of it is that individuals are still willing to join the police force and work for the good of the community on that basis.

In 1829 Sir Robert Peel, the father of modern policing, said "The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to the law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws; by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life." Nobody ever gets everything right, and the Police Service have got several of these points wrong over the years, but that last sentence strikes a cord tonight.

Fiona Bone & Nicola Hughes.


May you rest in peace and rise in glory.

 

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