Crying over spilt ethics…

Mounted officer of the British Metropolitan Po... — Image via Wikipedia

Last week I posted on the latest government initiated reviews and initiatives which will undoubtedly have a fundamental impact upon British Policing (see Winsor’s War).

Despite banging on Ad infinitum about a myriad of issues in police management, and the systems and processes which preclude good service to the public, we now face even more problems that will impact upon the service they deserve.

For some time now Police Leadership and Management selection, and the development of those ‘managers’ has tended towards the promotion of a self-interested methodology. In addition, the overall organisational structure, function and raison d’être of the policing function has hardly featured in that process. Whilst managers have been enhancing their CV with one-off initiatives and half-baked ideas, in furtherance of their personal career meanwhile, those who are paying the ultimate price of this misguided process are the public.

These underlying trends are a major part of the fundamental cause of many of the problems we see today. Mismanagement of resources, more complaints, increased levels of bureaucracy, poor response times et al are not good omens for the future. Couple this with the additional failings throughout the greater Criminal Justice System and you should be able to answer the question; why is public support of the policing process in a decline? Fellow bloggers have been observing these issues and commenting in a similar vein for many years now…

Allcoppedout’s Blog: Steve Bennett (thinblueline) has written an excellent book, currently available free via his blog. I agree with everything he says, a rare event for someone cursed with my kind of critical eye. Someone with my referencing skills could turn it into a PhD in a couple of weeks, but it’s already better than nearly all that kind of dross or the ethnography of Copperfield, Night Jack, Gadget and Bloggs, good as this is as elementary polemic… (Read More)

The original concept of the British policing process was one of policing by consent and unfortunately, we are loosing that public support (consent) at an alarming rate. The police in the UK are now seen by many simply as puppets; enforcing the will of a non listening government without mandate on an ever suffering society or, simply tax collectors for HM Revenue. Nothing could be further from the truth but I can see why these thought processes and opinions have taken root.

Another principle of British policing was, it should be totally independent from any political control or allegiance to any particular party. This is where the rot has set in, there is more and more politics involved today than ever before, be that personal or individual politics. The reasons once again are that term ‘self-interest’, a factor that is having a profound and negative impact upon our society!

Unless you have that very rare ability to honestly say you put others before yourself… It’s no good crying over spilt ethics!