Andrew Gray's blog

Community policing vs Z cars and flying squads

I don't often agree with David Blunkett on criminal justice issues. But he was spot on in his criticism of plans by South Yorkshire police to replace professional officers with PCSOs in neighburhood teams. He condemned the plans as a return to the Z-cars era of flying squads.

This is not about arrest powers or preserving professional status. It has everything to do with preserving the primacy of community policing.

• Public confidence will be undermined if we think we're being short-changed. Public confidence is essential to successful policing. Once lost, it can be hard to win back.
• Neigbourhood policing requires professional skills to interact with the public, win trust and gather information. It is no less skilled than detective work or other more glamarous policing work.
• Community policing must be at the heart of any good policing strategy, because without community support and a flow of local information, the police cannot do their other work.

The inquest into Revd Michael Malleson's tragic death on Heaton Road was completed last week. It confirmed that no blame can be attached to the car driver involved nor to Michael. He died shortly after being knocked off his bicycle on Heaton Road, next to the Heaton Park entrance. See the Journal story for details. Most noteworthy in this report is that the local police have already been in touch with council officers to prevent cars parking near the junction in future. That's good neighbourhood policing in action, and we must hope that the request goes to the top of the Council's priority list.

18 years on, lessons for police remain unchanged

The shadow of bungled police investigation and institutional racism hangs over yesterday's partial justice for Stephen Lawrence's family. We have heard about how much has changed in the Met after the MacPherson inquiry. I hope it has, having witnessed for myself the brush-off given to a casual inquiry about levels of local racism at an East End police station in 1991.

But look at the failure of a senior police officer to meet the family of Mark Duggan that sparked off this summer's riots, in which hatred of police seems to have been the one common factor. Or the repeal of post-MacPherson legislation relating to stop and account, continuing excess use of stop and search against ethnic minorities, or insensitive deployments of CCTV in muslim neighbourhoods.

So a reminder of the importance of policing by consent. This principle should underpin all our policing, of both protests and communities. Our politicians are too quick to forget the lesson when legislating and looking for the 'quick fix' in response to riots or crises.

Community policing takes years to build up, but just a few bad policing decisions to destroy. The test post-Lawrence is, will we stick by policing by consent when the going gets tough.