Service with a sneer
From Edward Spcilton Sir: Gareth Lawrence's response to Mr Samengo-Turner's arrest (Letters, 4 December) betrays the sort of aggressive, officious thuggishness which has become a characteristic of some of our police. The rot has been established for a long time and probably started when police officers were allowed to become chief constables.
Before that, former military officers were usually appointed. They understood leadership as well as the importance of a good turn-out. They were there for a terrn of years and were not, in general, expecting further promotion, so had no cause to ingratiate themselves politically.
If Gareth Lawrence and his fellow officers are unable or unwilling to distinguish between respectable people and the types who are the usual patients of Dr Theodore Dalrymple, then they arc unfit for their jobs. In these days of targets, it may be that the Metropolitan Police officers involved in random car searches had a quota to fulfil in the manner which used to apply to Soviet police and prosecutors. It would explain the glee with which they fell upon Mr Samengo-Turner.
The positive helpfulness which most people used to feel was due to the police is being eroded both by increasingly silly restrictive laws and by clod-brained enforcement. We used to have a police force. Now it is called a police service. As Gareth Lawrence's contribution shows, it tends towards a scruffy service with a sneer to those who pay for it,
Edward Spalton
Derby
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