Police numbers

In the spirit of political evenhandedness, tonight's short post is on the fascinating subject of what the Con/dems are going to do about police numbers. Well actually it is quite interesting, once you get under the skin of it a bit. And perhaps even something the new government might get right.

This was of course something of a holy grail for New Labour (and indeed appears to have been for the SNP in Scotland). More  police was inevitably seen as a good thing, in much the way that more prison(ers) was, in essence, also seen as just the right thing to do. But, given the lack of any robust evidence (much evidence at all, in fact) that more police=less crime, perhaps this holy cow needs to be poked around a bit, if not actually humanely slaughtered. And that's certainly what the Home Office spending review hints at, with numbers like 20,000 less officers being mentioned out loud, although you can't help feeling that the 40 per cent cuts figure is scare-mongering to make what eventually does come seem not do bad.

It seems very easy for many people to assume that less police is automatically a bad thing. It will certainly be presented as an efficiency saving (cutting admin and bureaucracy) which leaves 'front-line services' intact. But perhaps less police, doing less things but hopefully doing them better, might not be such a bad thing after all. It often seems we live in one of the most over-policed countries in Europe, with a police presence demanded at almost any event. They often seem superfluous. For example, if people are just getting along with things at a small demo, or a street party, or a little festival or whatever, do officers really need to hang around? After all, we usually get on with life pretty well knowing that the police are there if needed, not hanging around our every move waiting for something to happen.

Who knows, less police doing less things but better might actually make people feel a bit more confident about what they do do! Although having said, where this leaves the apparently insatiable public demand for more bobbies on the beat is anyone's guess - that's surely something the government can't be seen to threaten. Or is it?