by Sebastian Millbank, The Critic
The police cannot keep plodding along while their reputation collapses
What has happened to the British policeman? Once, he was the embodiment of British orderliness, civility and trust — a gentle and humane figure as portrayed in Dixon of Dock Green, known to his community and visible on its streets. Today he is an individual who symbolises contemporary British disorder: lazy, secretly unpleasant, obsessed with regulation, an enforcer of petty tyranny, and an ignorer of civil disturbance. The transformation of the archetypal cop from kindhearted neighborhood guardian to cowardly bully is an extraordinary development that has occurred across the course of my lifetime. It is not a fair story to tell about the many decent men and women who go into policing out of a desire to serve the public, but this collapse of a once invulnerable mythology reflects the emerging reality of a failed policing culture.
In recent days, seven police officers were sacked for “offensive” WhatsApp messages — just the latest in a string of firings for online messaging groups; a story that reflects both the often absurd excesses of political sensitivity, but also the growing perception of nastiness when it comes to the character and conduct of our cops. As grim as their private banter might be, these were perhaps seven officers we could ill afford to lose, as police forces are still struggling to recruit and return to their 2010 levels. Trust in the police has reached new lows, with 52 per cent of adults reporting that they lacked confidence in the police, as compared to 39 per cent in 2019. So how did we get here?