What has really gone wrong with our police?

The biggest modern 罪，犯罪 mystery is this: where did the police disappear to? Not long ago, the patrolling constable in his 独特の helmet was a familiar sight in city and village, as much a part of the landscape as the red 中心存在 box. Now you can go for days without seeing anyone answering this description.

You might いつかs glimpse that 完全に different 種類, the modern 巡査. He - or she - is not a police officer as we used to know them, but a sort of 議会の social 労働者, clattering with gadgets, tuned into a distant HQ through an earpiece, more distant,

more nervous, more 積極的な but strangely いっそう少なく powerful than he once was.

He is 一般に in a car swishing by too 急速な／放蕩な to see or hear anything, or even clattering 総計費 in a ヘリコプター. If on foot, he is seldom on 正規の／正選手 patrol but hurrying to a 会合 with a briefcase. Or he will be getting out of a big 先頭 with several others.

You would not want to catch his 注目する，もくろむ, even if you are doing nothing wrong. He is not friendly and 患者 like the old-time officers, but sternjawedand aloof, with an 空気／公表する of not needing you and 推定する／予想するing the same in return. He rarely wears a helmet, preferring a flat cap or no headgear at all.

He often has a shaved 長，率いる and a slouching manner, not all that different from the bouncers lurking 負かす／撃墜する the street outside the nightclub.

And if you look at him carefully you will notice that he is equipped for an 完全に different 仕事 from the one his forerunners did.

武器

いつかs he is 現実に 武装した. But even if he isn't carrying a gun, he looks as if he せねばならない be. Already on his （人が）群がるd belt are 手錠s, a big club and a pepper spray. These items send the message that he is ready for anything, and not to be trifled with.

Not so long ago he would have been taller but his truncheon would have been smaller. And that truncheon would have been 隠すd in a 控えめの pocket, only to be produced in 緊急s. The 静かな smartness of his uniform, his 高さ and his 確信して manner usually 鎮圧するd trouble by themselves.

Something enormously important has happened to the police in this country. Yet we did not realise what was happening until it was too late. Our 判決，裁定 エリート decided that this was what they 手配中の，お尋ね者, and they 始める，決める about doing it without 支払う／賃金ing much attention to the opinions of the people.

So what has become of the 団体／死体 that was once, やめる genuinely, the envy of the world and the example for the police 軍隊s of most 解放する／自由な and democratic countries? Why is it that the Home 長官 is now 本気で 示唆するing that park wardens and shopping 商店街 安全 guards should be given the 力／強力にする to 徴収する その場で／直ちに 罰金s in a foredoomed 試みる／企てる to 回復する order to the streets?

Short 供給（する）?

Most people assume that you can never find a policeman any more because they are in short 供給（する）. They hear 長，指導者 constables complaining about 動員可能数 不足s and they listen to 政治家，政治屋s 約束ing to 増加する police numbers, but the 不足 of policemen is a myth.

There are now more police officers per 長，率いる of 全住民 in England and むちの跡s than at almost any time in 最近の history. These are 支援するd up by 抱擁する 騎兵大隊s of nonuniformed staff doing many of the things that the police used to have to do themselves. It is true that numbers dropped わずかに in the 早期に years of the Blair 政府, but not enough to make a 重要な difference.

For instance, in 1901, when this country was 整然とした beyond the dreams of anyone alive today, there were 42,484 police officers looking after 32,527,843 people, one officer for every 766 国民s in England and むちの跡s. In 1951, another 公正に／かなり 平和的な year, there was one officer for every 693 国民s. In 1991, with the 全住民 at 49,890,000, there were 125,294 officers - one for every 398 of us. Since then, the 全住民 has risen わずかに and t he police strength has fallen わずかに, but the 割合 of officers to people has stayed much higher than in the past.

During the past 30 years the police have given up a lot of the things they used to do, 含むing ticketing 不法に parked cars and checking 商業の 前提s after dark, not to について言及する 手渡すing over their 起訴するing 役割 to the 栄冠を与える 起訴 Service. So we have to look somewhere else for the explanation.

Something else has gone wrong. It is the way the police are led and organised, the 法律s they 施行する, the ideas that 治める／統治する them. The trouble started in the Sixties when the Home Office decided it 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get rid of the old foot patrols.

It did not do this because it had discovered that new methods were any better. There was no 証拠 that there was anything wrong with the old system. No, the Home Office seems to have done it because it thought new methods might be cheaper and because it had an 直感的に dislike of the old ways.

Eric St Johnston

They 設立する a keen 支持する／優勝者 in Eric St Johnston, 長，指導者 Constable of Lancashire and in many ways the father of the 革命 in the police. He was a university 卒業生（する）, a rare 生存者 of a failed Thirties 試みる／企てる to create a police officer class, and had never served as an ordinary （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 巡査.

But he was a keen innovator and publicist and so had caught the 注目する，もくろむ of the new 労働 総理大臣, Harold Wilson, the Tony Blair of the Sixties. Wilson called him 'one of the most 進歩／革新的な 長，指導者s in police history-which is true if by 進歩 you mean 早い and adventurous change, and do not much care if it makes things better or worse.

St Johnston was having problems in the Liverpool 郊外 of Kirkby, a 不正に designed and enormous new town which was 証明するing difficult to police by the normal methods. It was hard to get officers to live in this 荒涼とした, rough, half-完全にするd place, and at one point just six of them were trying to patrol a community o f 60,000. There were many possible approaches to this, but St Johnston 選ぶd what turned out to be the wrong one.

He 解任するd: 'We decided the foot patrol （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 must go, and in May 1965 the 11 foot patrol （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s were reorganised into five 動きやすい （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s patrolled throughout the 24 hours by a policeman in a car, only the 歩行者 shopping 管区 存在 covered on foot. More important, each man carried in his pocket a personal 無線で通信する which enabled him at all times, whether in the car or out of it, to keep in touch with his 駅／配置する.'

The Lancashire 長，指導者 constable had invented a new 肉親，親類d of policeman without realising it. Once officers started using cars for patrol, they would never go 支援する to walking.

But that was not all. By linking them with （警察，軍隊などの）本部, he had begun a 過程 that would turn policing upside 負かす／撃墜する.