Community Policing

Speech delivered on Wed 25th Feb 2009

As a recent recruit to the Justice Committee, I can claim credit only for signing off the final version of the report on community policing. The report is important and we can all agree with its conclusions. Professor Skogan defined community policing as involving "turf orientation"-a good phrase that means decentralising policing-and

"an extremely broad problem-solving view of the nature of the problems that they face" -[Official Report, Justice Committee, 20 May 2008; c 755.]

That is a good starting point.

I will begin by setting community policing in context. In an ideal world, all citizens would behave properly and respect their neighbours: 99 per cent of the public would not think-as a report in today's newspapers tells us-that alcohol has had a detrimental effect on their community, knives would stay in the kitchen cutlery drawer rather than be responsible for about 70 deaths a year in Scotland, and policemen would not be needed.

However, we do not live in an ideal world, so society, the Government and the police force have the job of keeping the public safe, locking up dangerous and violent people, dealing with the consequences of fractured families and the ravages of drug and alcohol addiction in damaged communities, and of responding to the lower-level crime that has been such a nuisance in many areas.

We deal with such matters first by various social interventions and at the end by various attempts to rehabilitate individuals or at least to protect public safety. The glue in the middle is the police service-not least the policing that connects to and engages with the community.

Community policing has been the police's central task since the first police force was established by Sir Robert Peel in London back in 1829. Initially, the police had some problems. The first police officer, with the police number 1, lasted only four hours before he was sacked for getting legless. Of the first 2,800 recruits, only 600 lasted the pace. The public thought that the police were a sinister foreign idea that was designed to create an apparatus to lock up the Government's opponents. I do not want to give the cabinet secretary ideas in connection with his alcohol strategy, but that is the view that was taken.

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): Is Robert Brown saying that, historically speaking, Lord Liverpool was a liberal?

Robert Brown: I am not saying that at all-I am describing the origin of community policing.

Another interesting point is that the first police officers' uniforms were blue because the police were modelled on the patriotically popular Royal Navy, rather than the more disreputable Army. They also had tall hats that they could stand on to look over walls. That was a practical technological solution of the day.

Things have come on a bit since then. When I visited the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan last week, I was told by the director that no one from the last round of recruits had dropped out. That says a great deal about the motivation, training and preparation of today's police recruits. I was impressed by the quality of the recruits whom I met at Tulliallan on that occasion.

I picked up one or two other interesting points. The first was the emphasis that is put on greeting people and looking them in the eye. It sounds like a silly point, but all police recruits are trained to say good morning to people whom they meet, to visitors, and to police officers and colleagues. That is regarded as the first step towards engagement with the public on the proper basis of respect, and it helps recruits to be observant of what is happening around them.

The second point was the emphasis that is now placed on diversity training-the recognition of the diverse nature of modern society and the equality of all citizens before the law. The third point, which is echoed in the Justice Committee's report, is that specific training in community policing seems to be left largely to local forces, with their different needs and requirements. Development will be required in that area by the Scottish Police College, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and local forces.

I cannot speak for other forces, but Strathclyde Police at least seems to be fully engaged with the priority of community policing. It is building on existing good practice and the developing idea of problem-solving policing, which has existed for a while. The reduction of numbers in the senior ranks and the recruitment of new police officers-even if it is lagging a bit behind the 1,000 officers target-have freed up resources to employ and, importantly, to deploy more community officers. Structural reorganisation has put a huge emphasis on the central position of community policing. The cabinet secretary quoted the figures for that.

In recent months, and for different purposes, I have met the local police in Govanhill, Rutherglen and Glasgow city centre, where the picture is broadly the same. In truth, many of us were fairly sceptical. We had heard repeated complaints about there being only two police officers to cover a district, about police cars flashing by in one direction while yobs fled in another, and about community officers lasting only months before being seconded elsewhere, not to be replaced. They were thought of like the disappeared in some Latin American dictatorship.

The situation has changed in many respects. I say to John Lamont that a little humility from the Conservatives might be helpful, because many of the problems that I have described, including those relating to the direction of travel of police cars, arose under the previous Conservative Government. A bit of perspective on such matters is required.

The roll-out of the community policing strategy seems to be paying dividends. I have the

impression that some of the long-standing crime hotspots that I recollect from my days as a councillor are at last becoming a bit too hot for some local troublemakers. We are arriving at a point where community officers have the potential to stay in post for at least two years, as the committee recommends, with abstractions kept to a minimum. One problem is that many officers are new recruits who do not have depth of experience. That will need to be managed over time.

Non-reporting of crime is a problem at various levels. It is important to note the disparity between reported assaults and the substantially higher number of people who attend hospitals with wounds, and the lower levels of reporting of crimes-for a range of reasons-in more troubled areas. Community police officers can be a key resource in raising levels of reporting of crime.

I am told that there is a fuzzy area and that incidents can get sidetracked to antisocial behaviour teams, instead of being dealt with by the police. That may be all right, but it may mean citizens not having the police protection to which they are entitled. It would be helpful if the Minister for Community Safety would take cognisance of the point, which was made to me in recent discussions with Victim Support Scotland, and ensure that there is, in effect, a seamless overlap between community policing on the one hand and local authority antisocial behaviour strategies on the other.

The concept of community policing has a long history. For a time, it was in decline due to the lure of motorised support teams and the delusion that modern communications could replace the physical presence of police officers on the beat. Community policing is back. The Justice Committee has produced a worthwhile report that will be a template for future action in this key area.

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Community Policing.