Where Have All The Coppers Gone?

It's a dinner-party and saloon-bar standby isn't it? If there is currently a record number of police officers, why do you rarely see one on the street or on the road? The Daily Telegraph has a look at the problem today. As we all suspected it is a failure of management that must be laid at the feet of the government. Of course it is right and proper that the performance and priorities of the police should be monitored, but the iron law of unintended consequences means in many cases that the pursuit of targets now obstructs the police's fundamental responsibility of keeping order. As you will see from the many police blogs an ambitious and bright young officer will rise up the ranks more swiftly and surely through being a committee and paperwork expert than through expertise in good old-fashioned policing.
This is a worm that will have to turn, because any politician will realise that public confidence is essential - if order appears to break down then some very nasty solutions might emerge.