Where priorities lie

The lowest number of police officers since 1996. Increasing levels of recorded crime. Children being used as criminal spies. Police failing to prioritise hate crime. These are just four of many headlines which have assailed our law enforcement agencies in the last week. 

“Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.” Fast forward 2,500 years and the words of playwright Euripides might well read, “Those who wish to destroy the morale of public servants they first regulate.” So it was that we had to endure Wendy Williams, lead inspector at Her Majesty’s Inspectorate opine in that Nanny-knows-best voice beloved of regulators that hate crime is heinous because it, “Strikes at the heart of who you are.” Well, of course, but is it a priority? 

Don’t get me wrong, people who abuse others because of who they are, usually but not exclusively, based on race or sexual orientation are bad, and often mad. I know what it’s like having been on the end of it myself. When I first appeared on TV screens in the south irate viewers enquired in none-too-gentle terms as to why Television South couldn’t find a “home grown” presenter for their 6 o’clock news programme. That was 30 years ago. I didn’t feel threatened, just mildly amused particularly when I was allowed to suggest on air that if they didn’t pipe down I’d come and live next door to them. 

Today of course everyone is looking for someone else to deal with even the slightest of slights. Everyone wants to be a victim. Ah, but what about when hate turns to violence. Well, we already have laws for that and, yes, if hate is an aggravating factor the courts can, and do, add that to the mix when meting out punishment. However, crimes have to be detected first and with so few prosecutions and even fewer convictions is it any wonder crime is surging. Criminals know they’re very unlikely to get caught, let alone prosecuted.

The politicians’ answer is often to turn to regulation. That sounds like a good idea. After all you cannot trust public servants to do the right thing, can you? You have to appoint people to tell them what the right thing is. To be seen to be fair, regulation needs to be evidence based. So let’s use up even more precious police time recording crimes ensuring they are properly pigeon-holed so that ultimately they can be used as a stick with which to beat the regulated. 

This all goes on in a vacuum. Regulators follow their carefully drawn up codes and make their pronouncements irrespective of the environment in which those regulated are operating. In Hampshire our police force has already taken tens of millions of cuts in funding and there are more to come. They countered well with technology – Hampshire was the first force to use electronic fingerprint recognition – but we still need crimes to be prevented, detected and prosecuted by real police officers. 

What to prioritise? When we’re burgled we feel outraged, but we appreciate the violation is nothing compared to that of rape - or of being stabbed. We abhor drugs and the evil done to our children, but where does that fit into our priorities? Ahead of burglary but behind rape and stabbing? Calling for prioritisation grabs a headline for a day leaving the poor police to sort out what to do next. Shrill voices suggest all must be prioritised including hate crime, but if everything is a priority then nothing is.

Beleaguered and undermanned law enforcement agencies have apparently sent children caught in “county lines” drug raids back into drug dens to spy on their puppet masters. This is just plain wrong. The children are vulnerable and should have been protected. Putting them at risk as spies is certainly hateful and, I suspect, a crime. What a world!