It’s time for a new police force

A serious government that was anti-crime could and would do this.

If I was Home Secretary, I would privatise the police force.

I would allow, under certain conditions, the opportunity for new, innovative startups or companies to bid for law enforcement contracts up and down the country. All I would ask is that the new forces do one simple thing: prevent crime from happening in the first place.

These new forces could propose what they wish to do, how they would do it, what methods they would use and how accountable they would be to the public. They could use whatever resources the current police have at their disposal and pay new police officers what they see fit for the work they do. The new proposals could then go to townhalls around the country and local people could vote for their preferred choice, having seen plainly and simply how policing is to be done in their area and what it will cost them. They could recruit and train their officers as they see fit. Each contract could be on a five-year basis, with new tenders available each five-year cycle. Local people could choose to sack their new commissioners if they fail to keep their side of the deal in terms of what they offered to the public they serve. The taxpayer could even have a rebate if the new provider was cheaper.

I would also stipulate one other condition – that the current police force, in its current form, would have to submit a bid. I wonder how many votes it would actually get. Opening up the law enforcement market would force potential stakeholders to listen to the concerns of the local people. After all, it would be those people who pay the wages of the new commissioners, and who have the power to sack them should they not deliver.

The point is simple: given the choice, would the public actually vote for police forces like the current Metropolitan Police, now in special measures? Would they vote for a highly politicised body that does absolutely nothing to prevent crime, doesn’t solve burglaries, doesn’t do anything that impacts anti-social behaviour, car crime, knife crime, and more…the list seems endless. Would the public, in all seriousness, vote for a body that polices Twitter ‘hate crimes’, but not grooming gangs? Or one which is obsessed with woke ideology and identity politics but has no interest in preventative patrolling?

I am, obviously, joking about this proposal. But only just.

What I am serious about is that the standard of British policing is now becoming a national disgrace. There have been many public bodies that reflect the current decline of moral standing, but I can think of very few who are now genuinely failing to the do the job we expect them to do.

The recent report into the alarming failures of the Metropolitan Police Service are horrifically stark. Tens of thousands of crimes unrecorded each year, hardly any crimes recorded on the day they happen, a total absence of visible officers, a complete lack of understanding of what goes on in communities, with “anti-social” behaviour being the main focus of the police’s failings, all name but a few of the failures in their policing.

It is the anti-social behaviour, in my opinion, this which is fuelling the crime and disorder many of us see in our communities on a daily basis. All of this points to the what many already know: the police are failing us. The fact that the they are simply never there, leads to more and bigger crimes happening. If you don’t get on top of thuggish behaviour, street drinking, cannabis smoking, vandalism, shop lifting, then it becomes no surprise when formerly peaceful communities become crime ridden slums. It is from this type of behaviour that muggings, knife crime and violence become common place. More of it happens when the perpetrator is undeterred, or is not interested in the consequences of his or her actions. This is the state that many of our communities are in now, which many good and decent people are absolutely sick of – a direct result of the conscious decision of the police to withdraw from the streets and chase crime instead of preventing it.

So, why not ask for something better? Why not see what others could provide? It is surely no worse than what we have now.

Whole scale privatisation is not the answer, of course. It could never work. Though I think the answer lies in a phrase we have heard many times over the last few years; defund the police. Yes, I believe this is correct. Let’s defund the police in their current form, and replace them with smaller, local forces which have twenty-four hour open police stations, day and night foot patrols and well paid officers who are physically cut out for the hard graft. Let’s revisit the many pieces of legislation that hamper much of what the police do, such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, amongst others, and stop the ridiculous idea that you need a degree to be a police officer. In fact, lets recruit directly from the armed forces and phase out the “Community Police Officer” role.

A serious government that was anti-crime could and would do this. It wouldn’t be easy, because replacing a culture of systemic failure never is. But nothing is impossible, and we, the public at large, ought to be demanding better.