Should politicians be intervening in our police forces?

Imagine dealing with stabbings, assaults, domestic violence and child abuse all in a week? What toll does that have on you?

Every week police officers across the country are being told what to do, or more to the point what they are not doing that they should be doing. Debates continue, headlines daily, and each week a different theme that urgently needs to be addressed. No matter which way the story is spun, ultimately the bottom line is that our police forces were completely decimated and despite endless promises they are no where near a figure our community needs.

We are being told violent crime is still too high in London. Well imagine that! There isn’t a day that goes by that knife crime does not rear its ugly head on our streets, without pointing out the complete failure of it being correctly addressed. Politicians are telling officers if they can’t do their job properly, then they will intervene.

Let us talk about how they intervened starting from 2010. A new Home secretary was appointed that then went on to be Prime Minister. Interesting to see that it was indeed in 2010 that the first series of cuts began. This continued into 2011, and twice into 2015.

The reason this Home Secretary cut numbers so drastically to our police forces was simple, she deemed that there was no correlation between the number of officers and the level of crime. Of course the fact that you dial 999 whilst a burglary is going on in the hope that officers arrive and apprehend the suspects, to be told we don’t have any officers, is not related. Obviously not.

Tens of thousands of officers and vital support staff faced the axe. Officers begged to stop the cuts but they continued without fear or favour. Imagine being a police inspector knowing your team was completed wiped out. Believe it or not, here we are in 2024 and we are still reading of how officers are stretched to the max, officers on their own in cars, officers struggling to get teams out. But of course there is no link to the increase in crime and the number of officers we have.

Our officers have increased their workloads hugely over the last years. The demands on our police officers are vast, not just in their workload, but also on their mental health. Imagine dealing with stabbings, assaults, domestic violence and child abuse all in a week? What toll does that have on you? Of course this is not something many stop and consider. Especially those who are quick to film our officers or hurl the predictable abuse. Just remember you would not last half a day doing the job they do.

There are some of course, whose response to police cuts is that they are all fabricated and they just want us to believe that officers are really behind the scenes playing a quick game of gin rummy. For those that live this fantasy, spend a day on a ride-a-long and see the reality.

Sitting back and pointing the finger at officers is very easy to do. Undertaking the role of a police officer in today’s society is not very easy to do. The con’s by far outweigh the pros of the job. However, there are many, many officers who joined to make a difference in our community and they do exactly that. Without them and their determination and dedication to helping their community, we would be truly lost.

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