The police force must go back to basics to earn our trust

Editorial: A new report shows that public confidence in the police ‘hangs by a thread’. Some might say that is far too generous

Confidence in the police needs to be rebuilt from the ground up (PA)

For decades now there has been talk of the need for a thorough reconstruction of policing in England and Wales. There has been some action, but often in fitful bursts, and it seems that many problems of deep cultural attitudes among significant numbers of police officers remain hardly touched.

“There are only so many times we can say the same thing in different words,” says Andy Cooke, HM chief inspector of constabulary, in his latest annual report. He says that changes demanded by the inspectorate seven years ago are only now starting to happen in the wake of the horrific cases of Metropolitan Police predators Wayne Couzens and David Carrick.

Mr Cooke says that public confidence in the police “hangs by a thread”. That is too generous. For many people, women especially, that thread snapped when they realised how vulnerable they were to crimes perpetrated by serving officers.

That confidence needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. No one will believe that the fundamental changes have been made until they see large numbers of officers leaving the force – and not being allowed to take early retirement on account of a bad back, either.

In many ways, police forces in England and Wales need to undergo something like what happened in Northern Ireland, where the Royal Ulster Constabulary was rebranded as the Police Service of Northern Ireland in order to gain the trust of a large section of the population there. The reconstruction needs to be similarly all-encompassing and similarly painful for many of the existing personnel.

The crimes of Couzens and Carrick, and the revelations of casual misogyny and racism in communications between officers, have rendered the debates about police numbers moot. Cuts to police numbers were an important issue in the 2017 election, and Boris Johnson’s promise to restore those cuts was equally significant in the 2019 election. But the debate about the future of policing needs to be more fundamental, with more emphasis on quality rather than quantity.

There are unavoidable questions about resources here, not just for the police but for the criminal justice system more widely. Unless the courts, parole and social work systems do their jobs, the police will be unable to do theirs. Sir Mark Rowley, the new Metropolitan Police commissioner, who seems to be trying to show the kind of leadership needed, has drawn attention to the problem of the police acting as a mental health service of last resort.

Unfortunately, neither of the main parties seems willing to face up to the issue of funding. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said she agreed with the inspectorate that “urgent reforms are needed”, but Labour is just as unwilling as the government to tell people that if they want good public services they will have to pay for them.

Without significant additional resources, and without a dramatic step up in the quality of police leadership, we fear that Mr Cooke will again say on publication of next year’s inspectorate report: “The time for talking has passed and it is now time for action.”