I have asked people with a variety of views to comment on "Policing Plymouth". Sid Anning is a frequent correspondant to the Herald and his views on a variety of topics causes considerable debate. Here is Sid's comment. It is his and usefully adds to the debate.
Thank you Sid for sharing it.
MR SID ANNING
27th February 2008
Dear Jim,
In a few months I shall be officially a Senior Citizen, and when I was young, the local bobby was the respected pillar of society; The Man who had his ear to the ground, the friendly voice, always ready to give advice - good as well as bad. In fact someone the public treated as a friend in need - and a good one at that. Someone who new your Mum & Dad, your Brother's and Sister's, who would not ever be too frightened too either clip you around the ear, or worse still, give you a clip around the ear and still tell your dad whereby you got another one.
He was also the person that if you was getting a 'bit of bovver' from someone, you only had to whisper in his ear, and it was soon done and sorted, without too much animosity from anyone.
So what has gone wrong?
But it's not just the way the police are organised and the lack of public visibility that has caused the problems in today's society, but almost everything from bad Government, to lack of discipline in the Homes and at Schools. Unfortunately, society is rotten to the core today whereby people only think about themselves, and very little else.
Virtually everyone in this Country lays most of the problems of our society at the door of political correctness bought in by too liberal Government's in order to satisfy the minorities against the majorities who have been left bewildered. The destruction of Family Life as we know it whereby very few families now have a Father figure to keep order at home. So it would be unfair to blame all society's woes upon the Police.
Much of the problems we have seen around the City's Housing Estates have not been caused so much by lack of police, but by parents who could not give a toss where their offspring are, and more to the point, of what they are getting up to. For me, it's time that a law was bought in to make parents ultimately responsible for their offspring's behaviour.
There is a failure of Government to build enough prisons, to bring back hanging for capital offences, and the birch for the little thugs who roam our streets with impunity, knowing full well that the most they will ever get is community service if they unlucky. Simply a failure by Government to properly protect the 95% of law abiding citizens because of liberalisation.
It's wrong that the elderly and the frail should be forced to hide in their homes, and be too frightened to open the door or walk down the shop for fear pf being mugged by drug induced teenagers. What kind of society have we got when that happens?
The judiciary's hands are tide behind their backs because of the human rights legislation, and lack of prison places. Our sentencing needs toughening up and those who are sent to prison are subjected to hard labour, and leave with a view that they would not want to go back - rather than the other view.
I was shocked to read in the herald that there are only about 30 - 35 officers available at any one time available on a Friday or Saturday night - what for a City of 260,000 people. Far too much time is being spent doing paper work, and not enough time being devoted to the 'job'.
Instead of PCSO we should be having real police, with real teeth. The public treat them with contempt and are not taken seriously.
The public see them being penalised severely, often for minor offence, (though some Officers would disagree with me on that score), such as motoring offences, but at the same time the hardened criminals who have never done a days work in their lives repeatedly get away with it which adds to the frustration.
Yes, and of course the Police have to deal with all sorts of crimes, be it speeding or whatever, but fail to recognise at the same time, that the Police are becoming alienated because of it. You cannot expect the support from the public one minute, and then kick him in the teeth with a £60 fine and three points the next by the use of indiscriminate Camera usage and expect them to be cooperative.
The Police quite right say, "you should not be speeding", and of course they are right. But when I read of criminals going to Court and asking for 50 or more criminal activities to be taken into account at the same time, you don't say to them, "well you should not have been mugging that old lady", and repeatedly get away with it. But that is not the fault of the Police.
If we as a Society do not get to grips with these problems facing society, and do something about it, I fear for the future of this Country. In fact many thousands of our countrymen are departing these shores because of it. The Police cannot and should not be blamed for society's woes, but I as an individual want to see these stupid targets scrapped, many more police - real police out onto the streets, criminals being properly punished for their sins, and the judiciary given more powers.
Finally, the Police have to get back to talking to the public, meeting with them, and getting to know them. All too often when people see things going on around them, and report them as good citizens should, in many case they are ignored and who can blame them when the next time something occurs, they don't bother reporting it.
Yours sincerely,
Sid Anning
