Police Service or Police Force?

Are the police our servants, in which case why do they ignore our wishes, or are they the government's enforcer? Is their purpose to achieve targets set centrally by the Home Office, in which case they are becoming a (national) police force?

If you are the victim of theft, you phone the police who make some notes, but they know and you know it's merely to get a crime number in order to claim on your insurance.

I am old enough to remember when AA roadmen saluted members and when the police addressed us as "sir" or "madam". All these have gone in our brave new world. There is a growing chasm between police and public. We seldom see constables except when they are driving or when we go to the police station to report something. Police stations are still closing at a regular rate, and the police seem more and more remote.

Data from the British Crime Survey 2006-07, which was published recently, indicated that more than one in four respondents felt annoyed after contact with the police. In the final event most of the contacts did not result in an official complaint. In fact only 10% of such contacts went on to produce an official complaint.

Last year, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) 31,259 complaints were made against the police in England and Wales, an increase of 2,296 on the previous year (2007-08). Approximately 25% were that officers were slow or ineffective, while 20% involved complaints about officer rudeness. (These figures exclude complaints arising from the G20 protests in April, which occurred after the end of the statistical year.)

Both the police and the public will lose if this alienation continues, the former because they will lack support and legitimacy in the minds of the public, and the latter because the police will become less effective at clearing up crime.

We need not a police force, out of touch with us and annoying, but a police service which is sympathetic to our wishes and treats us civilly and as partners in the war against crime.