IMO, David Gilbertson has nailed the new policing mentality in this new article in the Guardian. We’ve been watching it develop for years, and anyone who has been ‘comparing and contrasting’ the US police force with that of the UK could see where things were heading:
“Increasingly, British policing morphed into a faux-US style of operation. Uniforms were made to look overtly military. The public were regarded, almost uniformly, as suspects, with any hint of dissent interpreted as anti-police. To this must be added the post-9/11 and 7/7 atmosphere. A succession of intrusive powers under the various terrorism acts convinced many officers that they are frontline combatants in the war on terror.
The concept of officer safety has assumed a life of its own. It started in the late 1990s with the laudable aim of designing a stab-proof vest for officers as a response to a small number of knife attacks. The concept has now moved from a defensive posture to an aggressive model. Officers are trained to be on guard against attack, to regard every situation, no matter how seemingly benign, as a threat situation. The lesson is that the public are your enemy.”
At the core of this policing crisis is a leadership failure
I’ve been regarded with extreme scepticism from some quarters for making the same claims over the last few years (especially that in the second quoted paragraph). It’s encouraging to see that there is growing agreement about the nature of the new policing.
EDIT: Have just realised that Mr Gilbertson is a former Scotland Yard commander and assistant inspector of constabulary, something which of course makes the article all the more important!