The Standard is reporting that a privatised Police Force, trading as My Local Bobby Limited, will be expanding its operations nationwide after seeing “success” in London.
The company, which has been operating in richer parts of London, has the power and training to perform citizens arrests, and can be contacted through an app by any locals with information about a crime. Their activities have led to over 400 arrests according to the article.
Given the wider context of police cuts, a soaring murder rate in London, the scaling back of legal aid, and an increasingly authoritarian state, I find it difficult not to be angry and a little horrified about this.
Surely this is confirmation that we now have a two-tier justice and legal system, which favours those with wealth. This was already true in the courts following the legal aid changes. It’s now true on the streets. Those with readies will be well patrolled and well looked after. Those without will get to see the effect of 21,000 police cuts.
I know the counter-argument is that “surely any arrest is worthwhile, whatever the source”. My counter-argument to that would be that we’ve deprived our main source of policing, creating the market for this.
Also, if Private Police Forces become to the Police what Private Military Contractors are to the Armed Forces, we’re in for some very dangerous times where overall accountability will be fragmented, doubly dangerous with these nutters in charge, who’ve demonstrated scant regard for due process during their tenure.
As with everything in this country, my fear is that is an excuse to further cut public spending and privatise everything. As long as the wealthy are looked after and the majority of the others are too thick/ busy looking at a royal baby/watching a cooking competition then what’s the incentive for the Tories to do anything for normal people.
Things like our health, education and safety are too important for private companies. Government needs to be up front and say that these things will cost money and taxes will rise. They should chase down the tax avoiders. They also need to reconsider their spending priorities. Stop wasting money kicking old black women out of the country and use some of that to employ a policeman! Fuck it, make the old black women police officers.
Good questions. A couple more off the top of my head.
What if they go bust? When the verdicts finally came in for Hillsborough, there was a still a South Yorkshire Police force to question and probe. Victims of miscarriages of justice will have precisely the same protection as they would as consumers of private firms that go bust. Some individuals might be prosecuted, but little chance of financial compensation.
One I can probably answer with some accuracy concerns the likely applicants. Best case, it’s going to be a serving copper quitting public life and moving to the private sector. Outside of that, I think you’re going to have people that have already been deemed unfit for service in the regular constabulary, either rejected as an applicant or perhaps worse, taken on and found professionally unsuitable on the job. That’s worrying in itself.
A large proportion of the applicants will come from the same group who traditionally staff the police and the prison service, ie the army. Many of them are recruited before they leave the services, the average squaddie is ideally suited for the work. Used to doing what they are told, used to the military structure etc. The vast majority never get any further than PC, their role is to police the streets. After spending a lot of their time in places like Iraq and Afghanistan you do have to wonder how some of them behave when they have to question or arrest a muslim though. Without fear or favour? I doubt it.
Something like that actually happened in the US after 9/11. Big funding changes, loads of incentive to nick people for minor stuff like speeding, cranking up the coffers and the overtime budget. A lot of people paid parking fines that year.
A point of order on the photo, Phil. That is Mega City One Judge, serving the Eastern Seaboard of what is left of the Continental US.
I’m willing to allow the blur between copper and Judge. However, I must insist that when making future comparisons to our increasingly authoritarian status and the sort of thing they throw up after a nuclear war and full robotic automation, you do not use Mega City One as inspiration.
Brit-Cit will be the entity that emerges from the ashes once our inept Prime Minister has finished poking Russia with a stick.
Had the Old Bill round here for the burglary today, one constable and one forensics officer. Both were top quality. The force ought to be proud of them.
Good chat, with some black humour. They checked my criminal record, which came back clean, whereupon I arfed “that’s just because I’m getting away with it”. Reflecting, my smart arsery has probably put me under investigation. The Scientific Support officer did top work with the missus when she burst into tears.
We had a small chat upon numbers. 21k doesn’t sound like a lot when put up against the whole force, but it’s salami slicing all the same. They now use the same number of plod to patrol a huge fraction of Liverpool that they would normally deploy on just this patch. Station closures have meant that they have to cover a much wider area without knowing the people they’re policing, as they used to.
I feel sorry for the Old Bill. They used to have the resources to develop proper intelligence and empathy with the community. The best they get now is praise from the woman who massively underfunded them and went to war with the Police Federation for six years, telling them how well they’re doing at picking up the pieces.
