Katie Lam: If the Metropolitan Police teaches us anything, it’s that bigger forces are not always better
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
It’s a cliché picture we all recognise: the local police officer on his bicycle, managing his beat in the countryside, comes across a young troublemaker getting up to some sort of low-level mischief. Rather than referring his case to the Crown Prosecution Service, the good-natured bobby instead takes the child to his mother. He knows, because he’s seen it all before, that a stern talking-to from a parent will be much more effective at setting him straight.
Nowadays, at a time when shoplifting or cannabis are effectively legalised in much of the country, this kind of story can seem hopelessly idealistic – but the stereotype exists for a reason. For many decades, British police were the best in the world, in large part because they were afforded discretion on how best to keep the peace in their local area.
After all, no template or set of regulations can fully capture the range of situations that a police officer might find themselves in. Local officers will know who in any given community is a real problem, and who just needs to be scared straight by their parents. They’ll know when to leave somebody in a cell overnight for having a few too many drinks, and when to escalate things further. They’ll know the pubs where trouble is caused, which events are genuine flashpoints, and which areas need extra attention on a dark winter’s night.
Unfortunately, the Police Reform White Paper produced by the Home Secretary flies in the face of this time-honoured approach. As the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, made clear in his response to the White Paper, these proposals are wrong-headed for a number of reasons. The Government is still failing to properly enforce the law with the resources that it already has, and is actually cutting the total number of police officers.
But perhaps worst of all is the proposal to merge the 43 existing police forces down to as few as 10. These changes won’t be fully implemented until 2034, meaning that we’re set for nearly a decade of expensive, disruptive reorganisation – all to produce forces which span hundreds of miles, and which have precious little hope of cultivating the local knowledge that officers need to do their jobs properly.
If the sorry state of the Metropolitan Police teaches us anything, it’s that bigger forces are not always better. The desire for administrative efficiency at scale can often result in worse practical outcomes on the ground, particularly for institutions which can only succeed by relying on detailed local knowledge. Bigger bureaucracies will mean more time spent on administration, and less time spent on actually catching criminals.
This phenomenon is by no means unique to the police either. Wherever and whenever the …
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
It’s a cliché picture we all recognise: the local police officer on his bicycle, managing his beat in the countryside, comes across a young troublemaker getting up to some sort of low-level mischief. Rather than referring his case to the Crown Prosecution Service, the good-natured bobby instead takes the child to his mother. He knows, because he’s seen it all before, that a stern talking-to from a parent will be much more effective at setting him straight.
Nowadays, at a time when shoplifting or cannabis are effectively legalised in much of the country, this kind of story can seem hopelessly idealistic – but the stereotype exists for a reason. For many decades, British police were the best in the world, in large part because they were afforded discretion on how best to keep the peace in their local area.
After all, no template or set of regulations can fully capture the range of situations that a police officer might find themselves in. Local officers will know who in any given community is a real problem, and who just needs to be scared straight by their parents. They’ll know when to leave somebody in a cell overnight for having a few too many drinks, and when to escalate things further. They’ll know the pubs where trouble is caused, which events are genuine flashpoints, and which areas need extra attention on a dark winter’s night.
Unfortunately, the Police Reform White Paper produced by the Home Secretary flies in the face of this time-honoured approach. As the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, made clear in his response to the White Paper, these proposals are wrong-headed for a number of reasons. The Government is still failing to properly enforce the law with the resources that it already has, and is actually cutting the total number of police officers.
But perhaps worst of all is the proposal to merge the 43 existing police forces down to as few as 10. These changes won’t be fully implemented until 2034, meaning that we’re set for nearly a decade of expensive, disruptive reorganisation – all to produce forces which span hundreds of miles, and which have precious little hope of cultivating the local knowledge that officers need to do their jobs properly.
If the sorry state of the Metropolitan Police teaches us anything, it’s that bigger forces are not always better. The desire for administrative efficiency at scale can often result in worse practical outcomes on the ground, particularly for institutions which can only succeed by relying on detailed local knowledge. Bigger bureaucracies will mean more time spent on administration, and less time spent on actually catching criminals.
This phenomenon is by no means unique to the police either. Wherever and whenever the …
Katie Lam: If the Metropolitan Police teaches us anything, it’s that bigger forces are not always better
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
It’s a cliché picture we all recognise: the local police officer on his bicycle, managing his beat in the countryside, comes across a young troublemaker getting up to some sort of low-level mischief. Rather than referring his case to the Crown Prosecution Service, the good-natured bobby instead takes the child to his mother. He knows, because he’s seen it all before, that a stern talking-to from a parent will be much more effective at setting him straight.
Nowadays, at a time when shoplifting or cannabis are effectively legalised in much of the country, this kind of story can seem hopelessly idealistic – but the stereotype exists for a reason. For many decades, British police were the best in the world, in large part because they were afforded discretion on how best to keep the peace in their local area.
After all, no template or set of regulations can fully capture the range of situations that a police officer might find themselves in. Local officers will know who in any given community is a real problem, and who just needs to be scared straight by their parents. They’ll know when to leave somebody in a cell overnight for having a few too many drinks, and when to escalate things further. They’ll know the pubs where trouble is caused, which events are genuine flashpoints, and which areas need extra attention on a dark winter’s night.
Unfortunately, the Police Reform White Paper produced by the Home Secretary flies in the face of this time-honoured approach. As the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, made clear in his response to the White Paper, these proposals are wrong-headed for a number of reasons. The Government is still failing to properly enforce the law with the resources that it already has, and is actually cutting the total number of police officers.
But perhaps worst of all is the proposal to merge the 43 existing police forces down to as few as 10. These changes won’t be fully implemented until 2034, meaning that we’re set for nearly a decade of expensive, disruptive reorganisation – all to produce forces which span hundreds of miles, and which have precious little hope of cultivating the local knowledge that officers need to do their jobs properly.
If the sorry state of the Metropolitan Police teaches us anything, it’s that bigger forces are not always better. The desire for administrative efficiency at scale can often result in worse practical outcomes on the ground, particularly for institutions which can only succeed by relying on detailed local knowledge. Bigger bureaucracies will mean more time spent on administration, and less time spent on actually catching criminals.
This phenomenon is by no means unique to the police either. Wherever and whenever the …
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