Fiddling while Rome burns
We don’t need any social activism in policing – there are far more urgent matters to deal with
This article was originally written for Don’t Divide Us. Information on their vital work can be found here.
The Daily Telegraph has highlighted a document circulated to Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies in 2023 as part of diversity guidance for their staff.
The article, by Max Stephens and Hayley Dixon, states that officers are being advised not to use terms such as ‘black sheep’ or ‘blacklisted’ in case they offend someone. Apparently, such terms risk “portraying certain groups as inferior or superior to others”. They have also been urged to consult the erudition of BBC Bitesize to find out the difference between ‘non-racism’ and ‘anti-racism’.
I guess some critics will highlight the importance of such counsel in identifying systemic issues within law enforcement and advocating for reforms that enhance justice, equity, and community trust. Yada, yada, yada…
How many more times does it have to said? The primary duty of the police is to enforce laws impartially, maintain order, and ensure public safety, void of external influences or political biases. Any mischievous intervention by social justice warriors masquerading as policing consultants (because that is what they are) risks alienating the police from the public at a time when confidence in policing is already at an all-time low. And let’s not forget that these consultants will be paid a great deal of money out of the public purse in order to peddle such garbage.
I find the seniors’ attitude more than a little patronising, as they are taking umbrage with terminology on behalf of those from non-white communities. Festus Akinboye, the UK’s first black police and crime commissioner and former PCC for Bedfordshire, has labelled this guidance as “utterly mad”. But, clearly, the almost exclusively white leadership of these three constabularies know better. How very colonial.
The Peelian Principles state that policing must remain neutral and impartial. But we live in a time when two-tier policing is generally accepted to be a reality (the only ones who don’t accept this assertion tend to be of the activist left, who get the first tier treatment). Not long before I left the police, I attended another interminable leadership course. We were indoctrinated by a Dolores Umbridge-like facilitator (another consultant) as to the latest progressive ideology, and politely threatened that we had to toe the line.
There was one ‘light bulb’ moment, however; it was decided to ask the question of the assembled managers: do you believe that two tier policing is a thing? The hands went up to a man – yes, it is. And this from police officers, the ones who have to manage cops at the sharp end. What we were in total agreement on was the fact that strategies and orders from senior officers were very much reflective of their (senior officers’) belief in so-called progressive values and their managerial cowardice when challenged by the activist class.
Of course, the apparent passion for guidance such as this could be ersatz with some. But one has to espouse this stuff professionally in order to climb the greasy pole in the modern police service. I’ve had the odd post-work pint with senior ranks who openly admit in relaxed surroundings that such policies are “all bollocks”. Strange days indeed.
The Telegraph piece quotes a spokesperson on behalf of the three constabularies: “Our forces serve diverse communities, and we are please to have an inclusive, culturally intelligent workforce, and invest in training to develop this ethos across our workforce.” Aside from being meaningless gibberish, this response overlooks the fact that Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have non-white populations of 28, 11 and 18% respectively, so these are not exactly the most diverse areas of the country. Even Bedfordshire, with its 28% ethnic minority population, has an almost exclusively white rural citizenry, with its diversity centred on towns such as Luton and Bedford.
But demographic accuracy and adding value to operational policing are not, of course, what this sort of initiative is about; it is about senior officers bending over backwards to appeal to a cohort which is never going to support the police anyway, and it is another example (if we needed one) that the police has been completely captured at an organisational level by social justice ideology.
The senior ranks are nearly entirely drawn from the graduate class, who tend to be more left leaning. Historically, the police used to draw recruits from the bluer collar echelons of society (especially the armed forces) – people who use their common sense and don’t make things any more complicated than they need to be. There has been an exodus of this type of copper in recent years, as they and their assumed prejudices are made to feel decidedly unwelcome.
Policing really isn’t that difficult. Or it shouldn’t be. Indeed, the more the job is ‘professionalised’ to the hilt, the more we learn of ridiculous protocols like this, and the further public confidence diminishes. Any form of activism could be seen as compromising that Peelian neutrality, and with societal cohesion seemingly at risk now more than at any other time in Britain’s post-war history, we’re sure as hell going to need the police.