The Public Safety Foundation
Writing in today’s Telegraph, our Founder sets out the challenges facing British policing and how a last-minute rebrand by the College of Policing as a home for tough-on-crime common-sense policing rings hollow:
“A colleague at The Public Safety Foundation recently had his car broken into. The local police have known for over six months that the area is a hotspot. Yet instead of proactive policing (stops, searches, arrests) the local team offered “engagement.”
The combination of a huge surge in recruitment, sub-par training, and shoddy guidance – all signed off by the College – means policing is rapidly forgetting its purpose. Marsh now claims to be opposed to policing aligning itself with activist causes, but for years he wore rainbow lanyards and even said he’d support police officers taking the knee for Black Lives Matter.
And, when a former Home Secretary – Suella Braverman – rightly called on policing to step away from contested and divisive political agendas, the College was barely to be heard. No guidance. No support. No leadership.
Sir Andy’s recent interview may ring hollow – but it’s a useful weather vane. It suggests police chiefs – many steeped in progressive dogma – are starting to realise the tide is turning, or at least that they must become more covert. They likely don’t realise it, but they have four years to show that British policing is back on the side of the law-abiding – and worthy of public trust and funding.
If not, the next general election will likely command a full factory reset of this vital institution. One that is fundamental to the first duty of government: keeping the public safe from crime and disorder.”
