Again, I’m not convinced that we should indulge the argument. After all, there are very few Jewish officers in the Metropolitan Police. Yet I’d be willing to bet that Jews are mostly perfectly supportive of the police and, when it comes to crime figures, among the most law-abiding groups.
And for all his claims that his initiative was not driven by ideology, it was interesting that Rowley chose to announce it with a column in the pages of the Guardian – the house magazine of the liberal Left.
All things considered, then, it is rather hard to avoid the conclusion that Rowley sees the whole exercise as an opportunity to burnish his own, and the Met’s, progressive credentials. He claims to have no interest in the politics of the “culture wars”, without apparently realising that he is acting every bit the culture warrior.
Rowley opines that the Met “cannot police London effectively without the trust and confidence of the communities we serve”. I tell you what would restore trust, Commissioner Rowley: effective, intelligence-led policing. Officers on the beat on our streets rather than behind desks or in cars. Taking seriously the misdemeanours that cause real misery to individuals, communities and businesses: burglaries, graffiti, anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, fare evasion, illegal drug use, car theft, knife crime, assault and the like. Genuine zero-tolerance policing – the type that worked in New York. And abandoning the institutional drift which has seen too many police officers become social workers and social activists.
An institution doesn’t win public trust just by looking a bit different. What matters is how good it is at doing the job it is tasked with. Take the House of Commons. It is more diverse than ever. But there was never a time when the public had such little faith in it.
Returning the police to their historical mission of effectively preventing crime and disorder would increase their standing in the eyes of the public more than any attempt at social engineering ever will. Commissioner Rowley needs to grasp that fact.
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