Former detective’s study for Policy Exchange warns that ‘policing has lost its way’ and urges officers to refrain from ‘taking the knee and other ‘woke’ behaviors’
A shocking new assessment warns that British policing has “lost its way” and that public confidence in the police is eroding.
The Policy Exchange think tank has asked the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to pursue a range of specific changes.
They consist of not “pandering” to “woke” political parties and cracking down on theft and burglary.
David Spencer, a former Metropolitan Police officer, also pushes for the elimination of the College of Policing.
A hard-hitting report has warned that British policing has ‘lost its way’ and that officers should stop taking actions – such as ‘taking the knee’ and wearing partisan political badges or symbols – that could be perceived as ‘woke’ by a public that has lost confidence in many forces across the country.
In a manifesto, the Policy Exchange think tank asked the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to enact a set of radical measures that would safeguard citizens from a rising tide of violent crime and disruption and restore public faith in the police.
The report, titled What do we want from the next Prime Minister?, makes eleven recommendations, including a’return to basics’ and a ‘focus on fighting crime’, ‘no more taking the knee and other acts that could be seen as “woke”‘, tougher laws to clampdown on road-blocking eco-zealots and left-wing statue vandals, and a push to recruit ‘hacker cops’ to combat a surge in fraud and online
David Spencer, a former Metropolitan Police officer and the head of Policy Exchange’s Crime and Justice department, proposes abolition of the College of Policing and the development of an app to allow local residents to report a variety of crimes directly to the police, including violent crime, street drinking, and aggressive begging.
Critics have accused a number of Britain’s police forces of ‘going woke’ – whether by officers ‘taking the knee’ as they did during the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the United States in 2020, ‘going soft’ on eco-protesters from Extinction Rebellion and one of its offshoot factions, Just Stop Oil, or adopting the LGBT colors of Pride parades.
Lincolnshire Police were criticized earlier this month for dancing the Macarena at a Pride celebration in Lincoln and appearing to brag about it by posting a video of police executing the routine on their official Twitter account.
Mr. Spencer stated, “If the past few years have taught us anything, it is that the British police have lost their way.” There is a need for an overhaul of police leadership capable of delivering for the people. When institutions become closed, they lose their effectiveness; this cannot be the case for the institution whose purpose is to safeguard the public from crime and disturbance.
Earlier this month, Lincolnshire Police officers performed the Macarena at a Pride event in Lincoln.
In June 2020, London Metropolitan Police officers will kneel during a Black Lives Matter rally.
Last week on August 23, a police officer gave water to Just Stop Oil demonstrator Mark Coleman, who had glued his hands to a road along the M25 in Grays, Essex during rush hour.
Former Metropolitan Police officer David Spencer (right) presents a series of recommendations to overhaul British policing in a Policy Exchange paper titled “What do we want from the next Prime Minister?” (left)
What are the solutions that “might fix Britain’s policing”? Policy Exchange’s expansive propositions
The Policy Exchange report suggests the following policies:
– AUTHORITY TO INSTRUCT POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONERS: The Home Secretary should utilize their legislative authority to provide instruction to police and crime commissioners in “special measures” forces. Depending on the situation, this may involve the replacement of the chief of police and other senior officers;
– DISMISSAL AUTHORITY FOR CRIMINAL OFFICERS Police regulations should be revised immediately so that police chiefs have the authority to fire officers convicted of criminality or serious misbehavior. It is crucial if police chiefs are to be able to effect the essential cultural shift in policing.
The Home Office, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing, should conduct a comprehensive review of the existing legislation, case law, and guidance (including police tactics, technology, and equipment) to provide officers with the tools necessary to effectively police demonstrations and other public events;
Police Regulations should be modified to enforce the discontinuation of “closed shop” marketing. All police chief, superintendent, and inspector positions should be open to external and re-joiner candidates. At least a quarter of these positions should be filled by external or rejoining applicants.
– DELETE THE COLLEGE OF POLICE: The College of Policing must be eliminated. It should shift its responsibility for setting standards to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. A national police Leadership Academy should be established with the responsibility of developing and promoting a unified leadership theory within the police force. Together with police departments, the police Leadership Academy should be responsible for the nationwide training and development of police leaders.
– AN APPLICATION TO ALLOW RESIDENTS TO REPORT CRIME IN “REAL-TIME”: The nationwide implementation of app-based technologies should be tested in order to increase the participation of local communities in policing strategies and decisions. Forces should be held accountable by disclosing data indicating whether they are concentrating on the issues that matter most to locals.
The Home Office should restructure its response to the fraud epidemic. This must include the Strategic Policing Requirement representing fraud. Responsibility for investigating fraud should be assigned to Regional Organised Crime Units with enough resources, under the direction and control of the National Crime Agency;
– RECRUIT “HACKER COPS”: The Home Office should determine the size of a new corps of data scientists, programmers, and hackers to be recruited into law enforcement in order to combat the menace of cyber crime. In addition to the uniformed officers already being recruited as part of the government’s existing Police Uplift Programme, this recruitment programme should be initiated as soon as possible.
“We must invigorate British policing so that new approaches to crime can be deployed, particularly to expanding sectors such as cybercrime and online fraud, which are already costing Britons and the wider economy billions of dollars every year.”
The research cautions that the public’s trust in the police is eroding, in part as a result of the department’s inability to combat escalating burglary and robbery.
Noting that clearance rates for these offenses are “grievously low,” the report continues: “The proportion of police-recorded crimes that led in a suspect being charged or summonsed has declined in recent years, from 15.6% in the year to March 2015 to 7.3% in the year to March 2021.”
‘Similarly, out-of-court dispositions (such as ‘police cautions’ and ‘cannabis warnings’) have decreased from 9.1% to 4.4% during the same time period. During the fiscal year 2021/22, just 3.5 percent of reported home burglaries, 6.3 percent of reported robberies, and 4.1 percent of reported thefts were solved.
‘There may be a variety of reasons for these developments, such as the fact that victims are less likely to support prosecution or that crime recording standards are becoming more severe.
However, there seems to be no doubt that the police’s capacity to solve crimes after they have occurred has diminished dramatically over the past decade.
From March 2017 to September 2019, burglaries, thefts, and robberies climbed by 24%. The lockout resulted in a decrease from 2020, but inspectors anticipate a rise in post-pandemic numbers.
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke cautioned that these are “not small crimes” and that they “get to the heart of how safe people feel in their own homes and communities.”
He stated that the low charging rates were eroding public trust in the police and has ordered a “back-to-basics” strategy out of concern that poor investigations are preventing victims from receiving the justice they deserve.
In a series of recommendations, the report calls for a greater investment in policing, including an increase in the number of officers, and a return to the so-called “Peelian Principles” – a reference to Robert Peel, the founder of Britain’s modern police force – essentially the prevention of crime and disorder through preventive foot patrols.
In addition, the manifesto states that the incoming Home Secretary should “toughen legislation to make it easier for police to remove demonstrators from roadways and prevent vandalism of statues.”
And it warns cops not to ‘pander’ to partisan political parties, adding: ‘Acts that may be intended as a display of unity against discrimination, such as ‘taking the knee’ or an officer wearing a badge, might easily be misconstrued by others as an expression of partisan political views.
To retain the public’s belief that police officers act impartially, police officers and their superiors must never engage in such conduct. This should be made explicit in both national and local recommendations.
The report also suggests replacing the College of Policing with a national police Leadership Academy, stating: ‘Its responsibility for defining standards should be transferred to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
A national police Leadership Academy should be established with the mission of developing and promoting a unified leadership theory in policing.
The research also suggests that police agencies engage data scientists, hackers, and programmers to combat online sexual assault and fraud.
It states: “British police forces must develop the abilities necessary to combat the internet sexual predators who target children in their bedrooms and the organized criminal gangs that commit massive amounts of fraud, which now accounts for more than a third of all crime.”
‘The manifesto advises that policing extend its reach into the online world by educating a new category of so-called ‘hacker cops,’ i.e. officers and detectives with the digital and data science skills to solve the crimes of today and tomorrow.’
Both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are vying to succeed Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The report comes after a bitter battle between the two candidates.
Miss Truss has committed to make the streets safer by requiring chief constables to “return to the basics” and holding them accountable with stringent standards.
If she is elected prime minister, the frontrunner for the Tory leadership will expect forces to reduce rates of murder, violence, and neighborhood crimes such as burglary and theft by 20% over the next two years and will publish league tables highlighting the worst performers.
According to Home Office statistics used by Policy Exchange, this graph demonstrates that the number of police officers per 100,000 is higher than it was in 2010 but lower than in 2018-19.
The most recent Home Office statistics indicate that less than 10% of burglaries result in a charge (this data includes robberies, burglaries and thefts)
The revelation comes amid a brutal leadership contest between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who are vying to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Chiefs of failing forces would be required to justify their turnaround strategies at special meetings presided over by the Home Secretary, and officers would be instructed to visit the homes of every burglary victim.
Miss Truss’s stern stance is a response to growing concern over the number of police forces in England and Wales that are failing crime victims and the general public, despite recruiting substantial numbers of new officers.
Six police forces have been placed under “special measures” by the police watchdog, and former Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick was fired from Scotland Yard for failing to combat its toxic culture.
Miss Truss already ordered Whitehall to cease utilizing “woke” unconscious bias seminars, and if she becomes prime minister, she will take a similar approach with police.
She would empower PPCs to refuse training that focuses on identity politics and guarantee that officers’ education focuses on crucial concerns such as domestic violence. Miss Truss will also instruct law enforcement to cease investigating internet conversations as potential hate crimes.
She will ensure that the new advice on so-called “non-criminal hate events” safeguards free expression and allows officers to focus on patrolling the streets instead of social media.
A campaign source stated, ‘Burglars, thugs, and murderers should expect to be removed from our streets and incarcerated, but it’s regrettable that certain chief constables are not cracking down as hard as they should. Liz will hold them accountable, and these newly released numbers will assist the public in doing the same.
However, police chiefs are likely to reject having their departments tested against national criteria, considering that some are in charge of huge cities and others of thinly populated rural areas.
Experts have also cautioned for a long time that if police are required to focus on specific targets, they would disregard other crimes and may attempt to “game” the statistics.