Boris’s ignorance on police numbers
The police today offer a fire-brigade-like service, acting only when the very thing they are supposed to prevent (nay are paid to prevent) has already taken place.
Boris and Co. might think that 20,000 more police will mean 20,000 more police on the streets but they are wrong.
Many still talk about ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ as though these still exist. Alas, they do not. The foot patrolling police officer was – to all extents and purposes – a victim (one of many) of the cultural and political revolution in the sixties and seventies.
Today, we have more police officers (in total and, importantly, per head) than we ever did when the beat system was active. As such, the problem we have now is not a lack of officers per se, rather that the officers we do have are doing the wrong thing. The following are figures presented by Peter Hitchens in his book The Abolition of Liberty, and are sourced from the Home Office and NSO:
1901: Population (England and Wales) 32.5 million; Police strength (England and Wales) 42,484
1911: Population: 36 million. Police 51,203
1921: Pop 37.9 million; police 56,914
1931: Pop 40 million; police 58,656
1941: Pop (estimated) 41.75 million ; police 56,193
1951: Pop 43.75 million; police 63,116
1961: Pop 46.17 million; police 57,161
1964-70: almost complete abolition of the beat system.
1971: Pop 48.56 million; police 95,759
1981: Pop 49 million; police 118,081
1991: Pop 49.9 million; police 125,29
1995: Population figures not available; police 124,710
1999: Population figures not available; police 123,051
March 2018: roughly 122,000 police
The additional officers promised by the new Prime Minister will not be sent to walk the streets, where their visible presence would deter potential wrongdoers from committing offenses, thus preventing crime. Instead, they will be sent either to drive around (past potential crime scenes, or towards scenes where a crime has already been committed and so can not be prevented) in batenburg cars, or to an office were they will file paperwork for a crime which – again – has already taken place.
In this sense, the police today offer a fire-brigade-like service, acting only when the very thing they are supposed to prevent (nay are paid to prevent) has already taken place. 20,000 new officers will not solve this problem. Only an overhaul of the whole system could do this.
Until this happens, people will continue (quite justifiably) to feel unsafe in their own home towns, and criminal matters will get worse and worse.
