SOCIAL APPROACH
There has been a lot of coverage lately of some difficult challenges around policing, and the culture in policing, and I know that that has impacted on how the police feel they are perceived. But it strikes me that in that climate, it’s all the more important that we look after police and their wellbeing. Two big reports have come out recently, one from Sir Tom Winsor on the State of Policing and one from the Police Foundation, both of which have highlighted a lot of problems. There are significant questions about how policing should be done, how police should be recruited to get the right people in, how to deal with misconduct, and how to ensure that the cultures are correct. And the police are facing a barrage of media criticism in the wake of this. It is important that we are looking after the welfare of our police officers, who are doing an incredibly difficult job in very challenging circumstances. We have the changing nature of crime, and very different challenges across the country. We have police on low pay, feeling the heat from some very significant reports on culture. Undoubtedly the Government should look after our officers, look after their wellbeing, and enable them to tackle the difficult challenges that
14 | POLICE | APRIL 2022
we need them to take on. What strikes me is that the Labour
Party is now the party of law and order. As Sir Tom Winsor says in his report, the Conservative Party has stepped back from policing and policy in the last ten years and that is not good enough. Our Home Office should be enabling our police to be the best they can be, working to find solutions and not just pushing the
“We should explore increased powers for police to close those houses being used for drug dealing or persistent ASB”
problems back on our police forces. We need a Government that leads and works with police to set an agenda demonstrating what the public can expect and what support can be given. That has been lacking from this government. We are going to set out, between now and the election, the areas where we think reform is necessary and what support we are going to give to the police to make that happen, because we can’t have one without the other. I think that the police feel unsupported by their Government. And then they feel
even more vulnerable when we, quite rightly, say we must increase standards and look at issues that recent reports have highlighted. What I would want to do as policing minister is to work hand in hand with the Federation, with all the police organisations, because they know best what needs to be done. I want to be a challenging friend, to ask the questions that the public want to know. It’s been a very difficult period in policing over the last few years, with Covid and with protests, with the reports that are coming out, and with the pay freeze. We want to be encouraging the very best people to go into policing and we can’t do that without making it an attractive job. That is something I want to work on.
Do you have a message to our Federation members? Thank you, for everything that you do. Most of the public supports the police and would turn to them with any challenges that they have. I think it’s been a very difficult time for everyone, and I recognise that. I think this Government has failed the Federation’s members and I think it’s time for us to step in and be the voice of support for the police, while also demanding the highest standards for the public. And we can do that together.
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