Instructed not to arrest?
I had an interesting email exchange with a police blogger, part of which I feel deserves further investigation. He's happy for me to reproduce the relevant part of the email:
"In the past couple of weeks I've had Sergeants and Inspectors telling us not to arrest, but this is because we are so short, Without going into too much details, I've been at places with drunken, aggressive and hugely abusive people and done nothing other than push them away - because I've known that I'm one of only two PCs available, and if I'm gone then 50% of the policing availability for policing a large scale area/event/incident has now gone. This isn't drunken shenanigans I'm talking about, this is large scale disorder or even at the extreme, racial abuse directed towards me and colleagues."
Does this account of the pressures on police ring true for you? If you've some insight into this do get in touch, in confidence, of course. We'll be looking at this issue on a future iPM, but we need your help.
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I hope that we are going to investigate this story further!!!
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I do not work for the Police however as a community minded citizen I have become very aware of the escalation of "anti social behaviour" which manifests itself in the form of gangs congregating on a local high street and threatening passers by allied to more extreme acts of vandalism, commonly smashing shop windows at random and spraying graffiti at will. Until a few months ago community support officers regularly patrolled these streets and train stations. Not any more. Reporting offences of the kind mentioned above seems to have been treated without any urgency whatsoever.
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So the issues are:
1. Too few police
2. No respect for the police
3. The line in the sand has moved due to lack of arrest resources.
From my point of view:
1. Yes there are too few police: I have forgotten the last time I saw one on the street. Not counting the pseudo policewoman that was lost in the village trying to read a map.
2. Why would you respect a police service that is run by some of the most bizarre publicity seeking political animals. I would prefer a police force run by law abiding people not ones that make political capital out of others demise. All Police should be band from interviews except crime specific press conferences.
3. Moving the line happens all the time in all areas of life. Planning control, social security cheats, parking control. Policing is not a constant, it is targeted.
In all crowds there are always the trouble makers and bullies, they will target the weak. At present the police are weak. What is missing is the link between the degree of trouble and the shutting down of the reason for the crowd.
If society was evenly mixed, trouble would have peer pressure, but policing and planning try to concentrate the problems into certain areas. This just means they fight the problem alone. The police need the will, AND presence, of the people. Do not divide this society any more.
I feel sorry for every uniformed policeman or policewoman, they have been let down.
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Actually my golden retriever which hasn't got his guard dog badge yet recently invited a passing Eastern European tramp into my house while I was upstairs. It was a bit unnerving and being a big woooos I called the police. Six burly bods arrived pretty quickly. they said they would take him off to Norfolk and let him go.
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I've just moved to a small town in Canada, and some of the local police went to the UK last year to talk about how they had reduced crime figures here so dramatically.
Talking to locals, the suspicion seems to be that they achieved this by just doing less. They take ages to respond to calls - and then if they do bother to show up, they make people feel stupid for reporting a crime. And they don't arrest anybody. Anecdotally, it seems that people here have given up expecting the police to do anything. So fewer people report minor crimes. And crime figures drop.
I wonder whether a similar trend is behind the disparity between people's perception that they're less safe, and the drop in the number of reported crimes.
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It is awkward to comment within the confines of the requirements of the Official Secrets Act to not disclose law enforcement information that would assist in the commission of crime. Police are quite sensibly discouraged from revealing sensitive information about police procedures and deployment that would jeopardise the safety of their colleagues, the public and themselves. Therefore to disclose details of police resources for certain areas at particular hours would be irresponsible and possibly unlawful.
However I believe it is in the public interest to discuss the issue at hand as an interesting example of how the discretion of individual police officers is controlled by often opposing forces of supervisory instructions and a personal sense of duty. I am also mindful that this issue has a great bearing on the topical subject of police numbers on the streets and how the public view policing budgets being spent.
It has been my experience that officers on foot patrols on the weekend evenings and nights have been briefed by the sergeant to avoid arresting people.
There are several reasons for this requirement. Firstly, the officers are on patrol to be a visible deterrent to disorderly behaviour so to make an arrest and take a person into custody removes that officer from the street.
Secondly the amount of time that a visit to a custody centre can take is often considerable. If the centre is busy, a wait of two hours can be expected before presenting the prisoner to the custody sergeant. If it is very busy then an alternative (out-of-town) custody centre will need to be used, often involving a lengthy van drive there and back. If the prisoner is sober enough to be interviewed then there will be additional time taken in interviewing the suspect and discussing the outcome with the custody sergeant. This may lead to possibly obtaining further statements and presenting evidence to the out-of-hours Crown Prosecution Service by email, telephone, and fax. Each conversation with a busy custody sergeant is often prefaced by at least a half-hour queue whilst other prisoners are booked-in or other officers discuss cases. Although suspects of simple crimes, under ideal custody conditions, can be dealt with in just under an hour, making an arrest is often a commitment to spending four to six hours in the custody centre.
Thirdly, there are alternatives to arrest available to officers. Offenders can be issued with a penalty notice. They must however accept the ticket and if too drunk to understand or too aggressive to comply then this alternative is inadequate. An alternative to this would be that the offender could be reported for the offence and then summoned to court if an arrest is deemed inappropriate (e.g. for operational reasons) at the time. Suspected offenders can be arrested and then street bailed, thereby delaying the visit to the custody centre to a more suitable time when the officer is not required on a visible foot patrol. The risk of disorderly behaviour can be tackled by making a requirement for the individual to leave the locality and to not return for a certain amount of time (i.e by applying section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006). These alternatives allow officers to remain visible whilst still addressing offending behaviour.
Avoiding making arrests therefore does not necessarily mean avoiding dealing with the situation in a formal, accountable manner whilst maintaining a presence on the street. However when there are only two officers available as described in the original correspondent’s post even these alternatives are likely to be ignored. Officers should always have the discretion to deal with situations as they see fit. Sometimes it might require “simply” updating the control room on the radio “there is large scale disorder – there’re only two of us – it is not safe for us to engage any of the offenders – capture CCTV if available – I can describe the offenders as follows...” The control room inspector will then need to become involved and provide further support from other PCs and commanding officers.
On a slightly different tack, I believe the discretion of officers to deal with situations has been affected by the requirement to meet the Government target for offences brought to justice. If an officer has to get a certain number of people charged or ticketed or reported for summons each month there is bound to be a strain between the requirements to avoid arrest imposed by a sergeant, the necessity to make an arrest to stop offending behaviour, and a need to make an arrest or other intervention to make sure the monthly target is achieved.
I believe the original post raises many questions in relation to the restriction of officer's discretion by their supervisors, the compelling nature of the sense of duty that officers feel, and the concerning situation of there being too few officers available to maintain order at certain times.
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