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Why Are Some Politicians Getting It So Wrong? | Comment

by John Johnson
5 March 2019
in Blogs, Opinion, Police Service, The Back Canteen, You Couldn't Make it Up
6 min read
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Why Are Some Politicians Getting It So Wrong? | Comment
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Just for a bit context, I served in the Met Police (on-and-off) for 10 years and spent my entire time in on a 999 response team in east London.

I was in disbelief yesterday when a saw an interview that Mrs May gave to Sky News, during which she said that there was ‘no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers’.

Whilst we are not sure which crimes Mrs May was referring to, one can make an educated guess that knife crime, being as bad as it is at the moment, is within her broad category of ‘certain crimes’.

Now, I do not have anything against the Prime Minister, just as I do not have anything against anyone who I have not met in person.

I am also apolitical as there is no political party that I feel I can support, that operates according to the principles of general decency and common sense.

"No direct correlation between certain crime and police numbers."

Theresa May says the gov't is looking at "issues that underpin knife crime" after two teens were killed over the weekend.

Sajid Javid is meeting police chiefs over the rise in knife crime: https://t.co/BhunJEqbR0 pic.twitter.com/Em8FZFXRWv

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) March 4, 2019

However, to suggest that there is no correlation between police numbers and crime, blatantly is wrong.

When I served in the Met there were enough officers to go out on shift and be proactive.

We did not have to carry our own cases to court meaning that we could arrest someone, do all of the initial evidence gathering and then hand the case over to a dedicated team, the Case Progression Unit, who would then work on the case.

As a result of ‘austerity’ the Case Progression Unit was disbanded and now all response team officers have to deal with their own cases meaning that what used to take 4 hours, could now take several months.

I remember that my oppos and I used to be able to arrest up to four people in a single shift. Not any more.

Theresa May denies* telling Police Federation who were begging her to stop cutting community police to “Stop Crying Wolf” Unbelievable!!!!pic.twitter.com/suRm78GKaR

— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) March 5, 2019

By being proactive, I mean that we would target known gang areas and gang members.

We used to have dedicated teams, such as the Robbery Task Force (RTF), who was phenomenal in disrupting violent criminals. They knew every single prolific offender on the borough and would target them every shift.

Guess what? The RTF was disbanded due to cuts.

We, as response team officers, would stop and search suspected gang members and those suspected of carrying knives, and we would get a lot of arrests as a result of this work.

Of course, this was before people like the current Mayor of London made it his mission to try and curb police stop and search.

And now, it would appear, ‘we’ are paying the price.

In September 2015, Sadiq Khan told the Evening Standard that he would cut stop and search.

It is, quite frankly, shocking that anyone would seek to ‘cut’ stop and search, as anyone with an ounce of common sense and anyone who understands policing will confirm that stop and search is a vital tool in the fight against crime.

Stop and search fell, and crime went up.

So all those who DID call for a reduction of stop and search should shoulder some of the responsibility for what is happening in the capital.

We have politicians, from both of the major parties not only denying that lower police numbers lead to an increase in crime, but we had, in the past, politicians publically admitting to the fact that they would do ‘everything’ in their power to cut stop and search.

I cannot understand why anyone with an ounce of common sense would think that cutting police numbers would NOT lead to an increase in crime.

If you reduce something that is preventing another thing from happening, then the reduction will lead to an increase in what is being prevented by the numbers being there in the first place!

It really is just common sense. It’s also basic maths.

If you have fewer officers on the streets, then you will have MORE crime because criminals won’t just think ‘as there are fewer police officers, then I should stop committing crime’.

“I’m staggered that the leader of this country has her head stuck in the sand” says @PFEW_Chair in response to the Prime Minister saying there is no correlation between cutting #police officer numbers and rising serious violent crime pic.twitter.com/Pz94XTu0KC

— Police Federation #StayHomeSaveLives (@PFEW_HQ) March 4, 2019

It’s almost as if some politicians have read a handbook on ‘how to be a politician’ and in chapter one, paragraph one it says:

‘Never accept responsibility for anything, even when 99% of people will know that you have made a mistake’.

Whilst this might have worked prior to the dawn of social media, this kind of hoodwinking is no longer effective.

The public knows what’s going on. The people who are still on the front line have voices which they never had before.

I am sure that, at a time when faith in our politicians is at an all-time low, then honesty would go a long, long way.

The public are sick-and-tired of being treated like they are stupid.

The emergency services are sick-and-tired of being kicked around like a political football.

Politics MUST be taken out of policing. Politicians should not be allowed to interfere with something they clearly understand so little about.

We owe it to the victims of crime to do everything in our power to leave policing to the professionals and to undue the harm that was casued to our emergency services by ‘austerity’.

Canning HS2 and using the money for our emergency services and NHS would be a good start.

I am sure that more people would want £55 billion to be spent on our emergency services and NHS than would want to shave 20 minutes off of a journey from London to Birmingham….

Support our news, stories and blogs – we need YOUR help —>

Just why are some politicians getting it so wrong when it comes to policing? @PFEW_Chair @PFEW_HQ @grahamwettone @Peter_Kirkham @PoliceInspForum @ConstableChaos @PCStevens1368 @MetPolSgt @policecommander @DC_ARVSgt @MPFed @metpc@MetPlod999 @LushCop https://t.co/9ET0EPMovE

— Emergency Services News (@ES_News_) March 5, 2019

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Before you go...

WE NEED YOUR HELP.Here at Emergency Services News, we aim to tell you stories that the mainstream media are not interested in reporting. Whilst the MSM love to berate and ridicule the emergency services, who is there to report on the realities of serving on the front line?

Emergency Services News is currently a loss-making entity. But our team of volunteers, all former emergency services personnel, do not do it for the money.

We do it because we are sick and tired of the mainstream media constantly trying to undermine the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep you and your family safe.

How many MSM journalists who speak ill of the emergency services have actually dared to don the uniform and risk their own lives to save the life of a complete stranger? If you would like to help back our mission of reporting on fact-based news, then please consider helping to support us financially.

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