Gender in the Police: Police Matrons and Women Police Constables

2.9The Modern Bobby: The End of the Indulgent Tradition

The English took pride in their honest policemen and their relationship was seen as best in history. The relationship of the propertied classes with the police had been generally good for several decades, but it was only the advancement of the economical and social status of the poor and the working class that actually helped to improve their relationship with the police (Reiner 762). This period of national pride, however, ended with the decade and the police have never enjoyed such reputation since.

In the years following the questioning of the police as an institution increased, especially by those at the receiving end (Reiner 762): the young, males, and economically marginal. These groups began to loose confidence in the police and their relationship with them considerably deteriorated. This change of general sentiment may be, according to Emsley, explained by development of both the structure of the police and the nature of the society. The Police Act of 1964 strengthened the links between the Home Secretary and local police authorities who were from now on “responsible for maintaining and ‘adequate and efficient’ police force” (EP 174). The Home Secretary could decide about retirement of Chief Constables based on inefficiency and was also given power to amalgamate forces.

Amalgamation of forces into larger groups was quickly put into practice and the number of forces dropped from the 1955 figure of 125 to forty-three (Hall 46). Although the number of forces was decreasing, the government did not wish to include the idea of the national police force in the 1964 Act (Reynolds 319,) as for some the idea was still unthinkable. Another important change in the structure of the force was the growing number of forces with specialised functions and the spread of technological devices. Policemen in cars began to be common as well as their usage of radios and telephones. The Unit Beat System was developed, which involved “a foot policeman with 24-hour responsibility for his area, a patrol car covering two such areas, and a collator analysing the information collected by the patrols” (Emsley, EP 176). The Bobby, who was traditionally pictured as unarmed, carrying only the traditional truncheon, began to carry guns more frequently. The truncheons are still the only weapon on routine patrols but “the number of occasion in which firearms are issued to the police has escalated inexorably. [...] The number of occasion when guns are fired by the police remains small, and the rules are tight. Nonetheless, the traditional unarmed image of the British bobby has faded” (Reiner 680). According to Hall, the changes made the friendly Bobby who lovingly patrolled his beat look like a professional cop who is more car-bound than patrol-bound (46) and whose contact with the people in the area is minimal.

As already suggested, the loss of confidence in the police was a result of multiple factors. In the early 1970s there was a series of corruption scandals connected with the Metropolitan Police and according to Reiner it is “undoubtedly true that those scandals damaged severely the image of the police as disciplined law enforcers” (678). Poor education and low training standards also contributed to the disputes of police legitimacy and it was only after a considerable pay rise and rising unemployment that university graduates started joining the police in greater numbers (Reiner 678). The rising wages of the police were interpreted as evidence of their involvement with the government. Whereas the public sector employees “found their pay, their numbers and their resources squeezed, the police enjoyed the opposite experience” (Emsley, EP 182). Margaret Thatcher’s government was pro-police and the public saw the “Maggie’s boys” as tools of the government (Graef 74).⁶ For policemen traditionally regarded as above party politics it was another setback.

The police were criticised for harshness with which they intervened in riots and protests, and alarm was raised after a series of incidents during which individuals died as a result of police action or in custody (Emsley, EP 180). In connection with the miners’ strike of 1984-85 there were serious concerns over centralization of the police since their actions began to be directed by the National Reporting Centre. The police were further criticised for their actions against young people, and for cracking down on housing estate disorders and teenagers’ joy riding (Reiner 678). If the youth happened to be black, the probability of problems with the police considerably increased.

Numbers of black immigrants were growing since the end of the Second World War. When the economical situation in Britain deteriorated, the black were among the first to lose their jobs, and began to be seen as a burden on the welfare state. According to Hall, “as race relations have worsened in the country generally [...], so the police in the black communities have come, progressively, to perceive the black population as a potential threat to ‘law and order’” (45). As a result, the black youth were treated with more suspicion and were more likely to find themselves stopped, questioned and searched than the white.

The problematic relationship with minorities is reflected also by the slow acceptance of officers from ethnic minorities into the force. Although it became difficult to fill the vacancies after the Second World War, the police were reluctant to admit applicants from colonies who were looking for work in the Mother Country. At the beginning of the 1960s “1 per cent of the population was black [but] there was not a single black policeman” (Emsley, EP 178). There was a black officer at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign and two black officers were appointed in the West Midlands in 1966 (Emsley, GBB 263). But only in 1967 Norwell Roberts became the first black policeman in the Metropolitan Police. He was used by the Met representatives as evidence of their relaxed attitude to race, and at the same time he was a victim of abuse on the part of his colleagues: “I had buttons ripped off my uniform, matchsticks stuck in the keyhole of my car, half crowns scratched down the side of the car. I had my tyres slashed. And my car was relocated to double yellow lines, where it was towed away to the car compound. I also had cups of tea thrown in my face” (Verkaik). Nevertheless, officers from the Afro-Caribbean, African and Asian communities did not challenge only the problems with their colleagues. They had to face difficulties with the public, both black and white, and in black communities were seen as traitors who joined the ‘other side’ (Emsley, GBB 264). There were attempts at improvement but the problems continued and the 1999 Macpherson’s report condemned the Metropolitan Police as institutionally racist (Emsley, GBB 267), and unable to treat the white and the black equally.

The relationship of the police with the young, unemployed and working class had been problematic since the establishment of the force. In the second half of the twentieth century the police, however, started loosing support of the middle class. It was not only the result of police actions but also of the cultural development in the society as a whole. According to Reiner, the roots of the dissatisfaction lie in the growth of the middle-class protests connected with the Vietnam War and marginal deviance, involving drug-taking and homosexuality (684). Emsley adds that the increasing number of cars and the need for the police to supervise the traffic caused other clashes with the middle class (EP 171). The 1960s witnessed a general tendency to question authority, a decline in deference and, consequently, loosing confidence in the enforcers of law.

In 1983 the Metropolitan Police Commissioner commissioned a report on the Metropolitan Police which showed the police as “bigoted, racist, sexist, bored, dishonest and often drunk” (Sked 353). This unflattering image is endorsed by Paxman who says that the police’s picture involves hard drinking, fast cars and general incompetence (139). On the other hand, there were voices saying that most of the above mentioned problems could be solved if the Bobby was put back on the beat and returned to traditional patrolling. For Paxman it is not the demand “of a people estranged from their police” (139) and it serves as evidence of continuing support of the police.

According to Reiner, it is a result of several factors: It arises from the changes in the police culture, abandonment of the white macho model and wider recruiting from among ethnic minorities (685). The police continue their policy of openness with the media and there has been a succession of books and articles showing the problems of policing and the police officers (Emsley, EP 187). The training recruits began to be instructed in dangers of racism and sexism and there were several waves of recruitment among the Black communities (Emsley, EP 188). The police officers receive better education and training and they have showed greater willingness to look into police malpractice. At the beginning of 1989 the Metropolitan Police started the Plus Programme whose purpose was “to improve the corporate image and quality of the service of the Metropolitan Police” (“Time Line”), and published the “Statement of Our Common Purpose and Values”:

The purpose of the Metropolitan Police Service is to uphold the law fairly and firmly; to prevent crime; to pursue and bring to justice those who break the law; to keep The Queen’s Peace to protect, help and reassure people in London; and to be seen to do all this with integrity, common sense and sound judgement.

We must be compassionate, courteous and patient, acting without fear or favour or prejudice to the rights of others.

We need to be professional, calm and restrained in the face of violence and apply only that force which is necessary to accomplish our lawful duty.

We must strive to reduce the fears of the public and, so far as we can, to reflect their priorities in the action we take. We must respond to well-founded criticism with a willingness to change.

It seems that the indulgent tradition of a calm and gentle policeman still has it appeal and despite the development of technology and wider usage of cars and fire arms, it is considered by the police representatives as the right path to follow.