Stops

It’s good to see that someone reads these missives, even though I don’t agree with their comments they will remain for all to see. That’s the function of an open society.

Unfortunately over the last few days we have seen people attacking the Danish Embassy over a trivial incident about a cartoon that none of the demonstrators have probably seen. Perhaps religion itself should be banned, or at least asked to prove its credentials. I wonder how religious beliefs would fare if subjected to the Trades Description legislation? Christianity has had 2,000 years of promises, and brought little but misery and pain to many, particularly anyone who has dared to speak out against a particular set of belief or values.

To return to the biography, as young policemen we took an active interest in our area. We lived on the ground, drank in the local pubs and knew many local people. Not much escaped our notice. There was crime, but most of the time we were able to handle it but too often today it seems to have run out of control.

We frequently stopped people in the street, invariably undertaken politely but firmly, and these stops often produced our best results. Today an officer has to justify any stop, not just in terms of general suspicion, but also with detailed reporting, each form taking up to 10 minutes to complete.

The powers we used have now been watered down so much that many young PCs take the easy option, and turn a blind eye. We jumped in where angels feared to tread, and often got results. We used Section 4 Vagrancy Act 1824, an old act designed to prevent ex-soldiers from becoming a nuisance on the streets, or Section 66 Metropolitan Police Act 1839 which gave us power to stop, search and detain anyone acting suspiciously, and that definition depended upon our interpretation of the myriad piles of case law that surrounded this legislation.

Such law was good law. It had stood the test of time, and most anomalies had been revealed. As a piece of legislation develops ‘stated cases’ are created that help to clarify particular points. We all knew, and understood how these powers could be exercised to the greater good. Today, civil liberties and incompetent lawyers have made a mockery of such summary justice.

The fundamental aims of an efficient police force are the preservation of life and the protection of property, so wrote Sir Richard Mayne in 1839 when the Metropolitan Police were formed. During the Thatcher regime it was decided it was not cost effective to train police officers in first aid, instead they should call an ambulance, and in any event they could make themselves liable to have a claim for compensation made against them if the treatment they gave was proved to be injurious.

I despair as I now look at our efficient police force, working under the stranglehold of spurious legislation administered by the CPS. I have since worked, as a bleedin civvie for both Essex Police and Suffolk Constabulary and been disturbed by many of the procedures now adopted. It went against all my principles that officers would not enter certain places, for fear of retaliation.

Gypsy sites were one place that the police would not enter, even when they had pursued someone driving a stolen car to the gates of the site. On the news this morning was a report of 150 police being used to storm one gypsy site. It’s madness that such resources now have to be used, and its because of a lack of positive action in the past, which now merely increases the nerve of the criminals.

I recall being in a control room at Essex just a few years ago watching on remote camera one guy pushing a wheelbarrow with a 40-gallon drum perched on top. He went to the forecourt of a garage selling vans, and started to siphon diesel from one of the vans. It was daylight, the garage was open. The garage staff tried to stop him, but he persisted, threatening them with violence later if they tried to stop him. He was eventually stopped, but not arrested because, the officers explained, he hadn’t left the premises with the stolen diesel. Total madness. He should have been nicked.

One sunny day I was at Highgate, on early turn, standing on the corner of Southwood Lane and Archway Road biding my time, as it was nearly time to go off duty. My mate, George Davis, was with me and we were happily watching the world go by, and as we were young men that meant we kept a keen eye open for any young women who might be passing.

A white Ford estate pulled up at the traffic lights, driven by a lovely girl. That was the start of a story that changed my whole life.