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London is about to get a new police chief, the second biggest job in the capital. No, don't ask. You have no choice. The name will emerge from behind closed doors, assuming the Mayor and the Home Secretary, Boris Johnson and Jacqui Smith, can stop scratching out each other's eyes and agree.
The choice is between the acting head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, and the boss of the Ulster police, Sir Hugh Orde, also formerly with the Met. Both should know where in London the skeletons are hiding. Whether either can get a grip on policing the capital remains to be seen. After a scandal-stained decade, it is as unfit for purpose as were London's docks under Jack Dash and the dockers' mafia - that is, run for the benefit of its staff, not the public.
Londoners need to remember that theirs is a relatively peaceful city not because of the police but because they are mostly a law-abiding and decent people. The police, with noble exceptions, are devoted to a different task, to turning an honest penny from the Government. If the public is safer as a result, that is a bonus.
Like many of my neighbours, I was recently contemplating the relic of my car windscreen after an overnight attack when two police officers sauntered past. They were taking a stroll, they admitted, from a tough afternoon in the sun guarding a local embassy. They detained me for loitering at the scene of a crime before settling down to an hour of enjoyable bureaucracy. This culminated in summoning a response unit, deciding against fingerprints, drawing up statements and asking if I would like a victim counselling programme.
I later recounted this to a constable of my acquaintance, who laughed. "You made their day," he said. "You were a statistic, a crime recorded, a crime resolved (that is, you took no action), a victim supported and a response unit activated. They probably took the rest of the day off."
Ask Londoners what they want of their police and they cry in unison. They can look after their houses and cars but want more police officers to make their streets feel safer, the operative word being "feel". They want an officer who knows local people, shopkeepers and businesses. They want a name.
They do not want a distant force showing off in helicopters, racing cars and blaring sirens at night - the Met's Blade Runner form of civic terrorism. A South African friend says he can always tell when a Test match is in London because of the ceaseless sirens behind the radio commentary.
Londoners are baffled that Boris Johnson refuses to order his police on to the streets, as happened with Rudolph Giuliani in New York. I am told there are roughly 10 New York officers on the streets to one indoors; London's ratio being the opposite. Yet like Ken Livingstone before him, Johnson will not stand up to the police unions and prefers to flood the city instead with an alien army of silent traffic wardens.
The result is a crazy priority. There can be mayhem on the estates, knife fights outside the clubs and chaos in the West End, but no Londoner dares be a minute late on a meter or stray his tyre an inch from a white line. The one London crime to which the Mayor applies zero tolerance is traffic crime. He hates the middle classes. Every Londoner would swap a dozen traffic wardens for just one beat constable, but nobody asks them.
The best way of policing a city, including for terrorism, has always been to have eyes and ears on the street in every neighbourhood. A beat officer not only deters petty crime and is reassuring to the public, he is also a one-stop-shop intelligence service and a focus of community discipline.
For three decades, the story of London's police has been of a relentless drift from that principle, towards the car, the office and pseudo-technology. The Metropolitan Police claims to have put more police on the streets, but do not believe it. More officers are assigned to neighbourhoods but press them and they admit that they hate leaving their stations, and rarely do so on their own and unless on a "target" operation.
The Police Federation insists on officers patrolling in pairs, thus doubling the cost. Covered in weapons and stab vests, they wander even the safest shopping streets two-by-two, chatting to each other and therefore ignoring the public, shopkeepers and any passing crook.
Two policemen are less than half as good as one, and twice as expensive. The Met has not had a chief in decades with the guts to tackle this so-called "four-handed" racket.
The image of the London bobby is no longer that of a reassuring Dixon of Dock Green. It is of two actors playing blood brothers and smashing members of the public in the face. The Met loves this image and has allowed it to re-inforce a macho canteen culture that, for all its sincere efforts, remains sexist and racist.
The task of the new chief is to rid the Met of this gun-toting élitism, exposed by the shocking de Menezes affair. The force is still a coalition of independent fraternities, dealing with riot control, VIP protection, counter-terrorism, drug detection, fraud and "liaising" with everything under the sun. It is a fraternity (never a sorority) to which every constable aspires.
This culture responds to the Home Office target culture, where crime prevention has no meaning unless part of an "operation" attracting overtime, bonuses and ministerial publicity. The recent campaigns against mugging, gun crime and crack houses were presented as if these were not part of everyday policing. Such operations are then validated by bogus statistics, as last month for knife crime.
London's new chief should join his colleagues in Surrey, Leicestershire and other provincial forces in refusing to accede to Jacqui Smith's Home Office targets. They have become a classic of bloodless, brainless, quantitative public service. The dissident forces will answer instead to their publics.
Sir John Stevens, the last Met chief but one, used to complain that he had a dozen points of accountability and it was chaos. Policing London cannot be politics-free, but it should answer to the citizens of London. That means to the Mayor and public opinion.
Public opinion should come first. Ask Londoners what they want from their police, and deliver it. As for the police unions, the Home Office and the target culture, dump them in the Thames, the lot of them.
Reader views (10)
Mr Jenkins after reading your column yesterday I was wondering what is your experience in policing? You state that officers should patrol on their own but with assaults on police officers on the rise I feel that perhaps you should experience first hand what is faced by police when they answer a call. Rather then sitting in the safety of your office go out on a weekend night patrol and then see if that statement should not be readdressed?
The "four handed racket" you refer to, is another indication of blissful ignorance, I'm sure two officers were set upon by a crowd on a busy high street in Croyden after asking a group of youths to pick up some litter that they had dropped "the Mets Blade Runner form of civic terrorism." I believe both officers were injured as a result and had to take time off work, which is a shame because as you see it, officers should be on their own and if only one officer was injured it would have halved the cost.
If the Met was to adopt Rudy Giuliani's zero tolerance policy I'm sure that you would be writing another column about the "macho canteen culture that, for all its sincere efforts, remains sexist and racist."
However I do agree with your last three paragraphs and feel that if Sir Paul Stephenson does heed the comments made and takes steps towards achieving them London will be on the first rung to being a safer place.
- Paul, London, 28/01/2009 16:37
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dixon of dock green was shot dead in the 1956 film the blue lamp then miracously came vack to life for the tv show, between you and me simon when police die they don't come back to life
- John, london england, 28/01/2009 07:27
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What a load of inflammatory, anti-police, left-wing rubbish. Dixon of Dock Green? Is it still 1960 where you are Mr Jenkins? Time for a reality check.
- Dixon, Dock Green, 27/01/2009 15:24
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The only time one sees police officers is before and after a football match when there are large numbers around, then they all disappear again. I agree that they are too keen on technology - remember the CIA's over-dependence on electronic devices because their agents wanted a comfortable life in the USA rather than on the ground in the Middle east?
- Susan, Watford, UK, 27/01/2009 14:26
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But the police should be identifying and nurturing leaders who will stand up to ministers and give their professional opinion that 'targets' and 'objectives' are getting in the way of maintaining public order which is what they are supposed to be doing. At present all they've got are managers who rise through the ranks until they reach a level above that of their competence. They then see it as their task to implement politicians' lunatic schemes whatever the impact on the public. They were told this by Trenchard in the 1920s and again by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary more recently but resistance from the Police Federation to proper selection and training of future leaders has let them off the hook.
- Peter Haldane, London, 27/01/2009 13:00
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Your argument about police patrolling in pairs is deeply flawed. Firstly we no longer live in the Dixon of Dock Green era; assaults on officers are on the rise. Two officers restraining one suspect will ultimately lead to fewer injuries to both the suspect and the officers. I doubt the police would have your support if the number of violent suspects injured went thought the roof, though from your note of distain I doubt the rise in injured officers would cause you to lose much sleep.
- Gary, london, 27/01/2009 12:05
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In the Borough of Wandsworth we rarely see any police officers, unless it is an emergency. Over the past month, on two occasions, patrolling officers have walked past me and were so busy chatting to each other that they were unaware of anything else. One of the conversations was about shopping.
- Nancy Ford, London, 27/01/2009 12:00
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Our experience whilst visiting London in June 2008 confirms the assertion made by Simon Jenkins that the Metropolitan Police have lost direction. My girlfriend was approached by an officer in plain clothes as we walked through a crowded section of Leicester Square - he told us that a criminal had attempted to steal her handbag although we were unaware of anything untoward happening. He asked us to make a statement and to our surprise offered to travel to our home in Leicestershire! Nothing had been stolen and nobody was hurt yet the victim support mechanism was underway. Sure enough, a few weeks later he did visit us and mentioned how nice it was to have a day out in Leicester. It transpired that nobody had been arrested and it was just a form filling exercise. He should have been in London doing what he was paid to do - prevent crime.
- James Pearson, Leicester, 27/01/2009 11:20
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As a retired police officer I view the current police service with a mixture of anger and embarassment. I think our young officers have been watching too much american tv. Here in Norfolk all police officers have ditched their white shirts for black. It is rare to see them patrol alone and they carry so much gear that even the unarmed officers look like some quasi military outfit. We have an army of PCSOs who have the powers of the school prefect - and act like them as well. The police service has become so inefficent. Every aspect of the job has been broken down so much that you now either have a squad or department, supported by countless support staff, responsible for that particular aspect of policing and for THAT aspect only. No longer do we have, well rounded officers capable of dealing with the majority of things, he or she is likely to come across on a daily basis. We also have constables ruling the roost, as management shys away from conflict in case that get emroided in grievance proceedures which may hinder their climb up the greasey pole. Lack of faith in the police is general across the country. I too have had experience of calling officers to deal with an on going problem since I retired. I can therefore well understand the publics` frustration at the lack of common sense, knowledge and enthusiasm shown by the police. I think the time has come to go back to basics and start again as everything just seems to be in a buggers muddle. Time for a Royal Commission
- Brian Gare, Gorleston Norfolk, 27/01/2009 10:48
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Utterly brilliant. Are you there, Boris?
- Ken, Bexleyheath, 27/01/2009 10:23
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