A couple of years ago the UK Government launcehd SOCA (Seroius and Organised Crime Agency) to tackle drug dealers, people trafficers, etc, an organisation to rival the FBI of America. So far as I know the organisation still exists. But what he hell is it doing? Why are we not hearing of the results of this Organisation? As an interested party working in a law enforcement capacity myself I am expected to fill in forms itemising what I do each minute of the day, how long I have spent on any specific "tasking" and to provide results, everything being "performance related"
Yet SOCA has just disappeared under the radar and seems to have got away with doing nothing.
I'm sure that's not the case and that they are very busy, but if they don't tell us about their sucesses how are we to know? I'm sure their American counterparts in the US get regular pats on the back for thier sucesses, so why don't we hear anything from SOCA about their results? Could it be they have had none?
This is a problem with the police service as a whole. Whilst the media jump on the police at every single opportunity when things go wrong, they rarely want to publisise the goood news stories relating to what the police do, If they did then perhaps the 20% reduction in police services that is happening to save the Government money would have hit the headlines more than it has.
Only when the media percieves thatthe police (or any other law enforcement or criminal justice body) has fouled up, does it hit the media. Yet behind the scenes thousands of hard working police officers are making arrests that make a little difference to th elittle people everyday, and the collective result is we are all that little bit safer in our beds at night. So why are we not told? Why can we not hear the results of what our tax pounds buys? Could it be that if it were publcised that the average bobby on front line response has made seven arrests this week, each involving a violent, probably armed suspect who was drunk, drugged or both, and that the officer was injured (again) as he tacled the same suspect unarmed, might the public start to think that the police service did offer value for money? Might it shatter the media perpetrated illusion of officers sat around in police stations eating donuts and issuing fixed penalty notices to illegally parked mobility scooters. And, if the suspects were named and shamed, might it alert the public to the revolving door justice system when they read that the same man arrested last week for an armed robbery has just been arrested again for another offence. Why wasn't he in prison, they might righlty proclaim.
The truth is, that whilst the British police service is not perfect, and undoubtedly has a few bad apples and a few lazy desk jockeys, and some ill chosen supervisors, as a whole unit it works and works very well. Where it falls down is in the meddling of politicians, restricting it's powers, procedures, budgets and by imposing a performance culture.
When I bought my diesel engined car I expected certain performance from it, and I expected it would run within a certain budget. After a month I found that it exceeded my performance requirements, it could carry five people and their luggage, tow a trailer or a caravan, and I coudl fit a roof box to carry a little more if required. The car returns on average 55 miles to the gallon. This means I put in around £75 of fuel each month, and in return I get aroudn 1000 miles of driving. Naturally, with the increase in the cost of fuel each year I budget a little more as time goes on. Haviong established that within a month of ownership, I accept that this is the case. I do not ask the car to provide me performance statistics at the end of each day, I just expect that it will get on with it's job. I know a little about the workings of an internal combustion engine, but I trust that Vauxhall have made a better job of building it than I could, so I do not tinker with it, and leave it alone. I do not try to remove biots, add bits or pare bits off, or improve bits, because I truly beleive that experts know better. You may be wondering where I am going with this analogy.
Well supposing my Vauxhall Vectra was the police service. If it was, I would not beleive that it would do 55 mpg, so I would ask it for monthly reports to prove it. And if it failed to acheive 55 mpg for the very pbvious reason that during that particular month it had towed a fully laden caravan, and a family of four 2000 miles across Europe I would want it to give me an in depth report as to why it had not only failed to acheive it's performance target, but also why it had gone over budget on it's petrol allowance. Coversely, if it had sat in the garage unused for two weeks whilst I was away and thus used half as much petrol, I would then cap it's diesel allowance for subseqent months becasue quite obviously it didn't need as much.
I might also consider removing the 2.o litre engine and replacing it with a 1.5 in the interests of cost cutting, but with no regard to a reduction in performance. And at the same time I would add two extra roof boxes and squeeze in six or seven extra passengers, because a car is little different from a mini bus after all. Oh and then I'd remove a wheel, because it's been proven that a car with three wheels is feasible, and saves 25% on tyre wear.
Well, ask an expert and they will tell you that three wheeled people carriers with a 1.o litre diesel engine, towing a caravan, and two trailers and with four roof boxes on the roof with a fuel budget of a pound is not going to achieve much. The same goes for a police force that has been hobbled by budgets and tinkered with by politicians who don't know how it works.
So here's my message to our government - leave policing to the police. Because if you don't ..... Well here is my prediction, for what it is worth. We have seen an influx already of former USSR state migrants, in the form of Lithuanian and Latvians coming into the UK. We also have Iraqis, Iranians, Turks, Pakistanis, wel, to be honest we have an open door to all nations, many of them enemies of our state and culutre, and yet we welcome them in with open arms. And that includes the arms they are undoubtedly bringing in with them. Whilst I would be the last to suggest that they are all criminals it has to be said that many have different life values to the indiginous UK population. They certainly view the value of life itself differently. I will strongly object to the suggestion that I am racist in suggesting that a great deal of organised crime comes from migrants. I have dealt with many Polish migrant workers who are now working and living in the UK and I can hand on heart say that they are some of the most honest (to a certain value of honest at least ) decent, hardworking, law abiding and god fearing people I have ever met. Moreover they integrate well into British culture, keen to learn English language and values, and to make a better life for themselves. I have no problem with that. You have only to think back to the "Auf Wiedersien Pet" years to realise that 20 years ago we were doing exactly the same thing over in Germany.
But my point is that if the Governemt chooses to cut police pay and funding now, for every pound over every year they make these cuts, they will end up paying tenfold to get anywhere near recovering the situation back to what we have today. Because once organised crime takes hold, as it surely will, then we are all off to hell in a handcart. Their resources will outstrip ours, and that is the slippery slope we are set upon. Guncrime and organised crime will soar.
Mark my words, dated 27/7/2011
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