Where’s respect for the public? (From Harrow Times)

Where’s respect for the public?

1:48pm Friday 12th June 2009 in

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EVERY day at 4am I go for a walk as I am 65 and need to exercise regularly.

I walk the side roads and usually in the middle of the road as it is much safer due to dodgy pavements.

Due to the upsurge of crime generally, I support the police when they stop and question members of the public, as they must.

I was stopped on two occasions and the opening gambit was, “Oi, what are you doing?”

I obviously explained that I was simply out having my daily walk.

After a few more silly questions, and as an afterthought, they stated that as they had a lot of burglaries in the area, that was the reason they were stopping me and proceeded to take down my particulars.

A few days ago, I was again stopped, this time I was greeted with, ‘What are you doing?’ and they then told me they stopped me because I was walking in the middle of the road.

Being mindful of the fact that it has never been an offence to walk in the middle of a side road at 4am, I was again told that there were a lot of burglaries in the area and that's why they were stopping me — again an afterthought.

Contrast this with years ago when members of the public were greeted with, ‘Morning Sir, would you mind if we asked you a few questions as we do get a lot of crime in this area?’ It is small wonder that the police do not enjoy the support of the general public, probably due to attitudes mirroring those officers who stopped me. Perhaps their training needs to be adjusted, if they are to maintain the support and respect of all of their public, and the respect, which I enjoyed during my service as a former policeman.

Stopping members of the public isn’t a problem, but the initial approach has to be right or else anything that follows, could and will have disastrous consequences, including loss of confidence and self-esteem by the patrolling officers.

Norwell Roberts QPM, Detective Sergeant (retired), Metropolitan Police 1967-1997, Kenton