Bury’s most famous son, Sir Robert Peel is considered the father of modern community policing and was instrumental in the formation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829.
He famously said, “The Police are the Public and the Public are the Police. The Police are paid to give full-time attention to duties that are incumbent upon every citizen in the interest of community welfare and existence.”
During his time as Home Secretary developed this idea to define what in his view was an ethical police force. This approach is now known as the Peelian principles and in modern parlance is expressed as policing by consent. As quoted above by Sir Robert, police officers should therefore be regarded as citizens in uniform.
In Parliament, I am a member of both the Home Affairs and Justice Select Committees and the question of how modern policing is responding to the needs of the communities it serves is a constant.
This week an Urgent Question was granted in the House of Commons on the Policing of protests during the coronation. Opposition members were all too willing to jump on the latest left-wing bandwagon to denigrate the metropolitan police for taking the necessary steps to ensure that a very small number of fanatics did not ruin the coronation and the enjoyment of thousands of people present. One SNP member even compared Saturday’s events to that of Putin’s Russia.
We have seen a similar attitude from the left to the Just Stop Oil Protests. The police’s tolerance of self-indulgent middle-class activists who amongst many other activities glue themselves to motorways bringing disruption and in many cases, hardship to the wider community has been utterly exasperating. The police have the power to detain and remove such protestors and we are in dangerous waters when the moral self-righteousness of a minority of zealots trumps the welfare of the wider community.
In Bury, we have a significant issue with young people carrying knives. This is allegedly for “self-protection" but the very real, fatal consequences of such behaviour have been seen in the number of recent stabbings in our town. I was briefed that if a young person without a previous conviction was stopped with a knife they were unlikely to be detained and charged but simply have the knife confiscated.
This is not policing in the interests of community welfare and existence. A desire to seemingly prioritise the interests of the perpetrator over the effects such behaviour has on the wider community is not acceptable. If anyone is detained with a knife they should be charged and put before a court, hopefully to receive an immediate custodial term.
Sir Robert Peel’s policing principles are as relevant now as they were in 1829 and it is incumbent on the modern police force to maintain public confidence by acting in the public interest, not those whose behaviour is at odds with millions of our fellow citizens.
