Trust and consent stop police becoming tool of oppressors, says Chair of Police Authority

65/02
19 June 2002

Trust and consent prevents police becoming an “oppressive instrument of powerful self-interest groups”, Toby Harris, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority told an international gathering tonight (Wednesday).

He said that despite the “enormous fuss” of the last few days about the access to e-mail and other data, the most valuable source of information – “the lifeblood of policing” - is not, as is so often imagined, in the warehouses of electronic data, but from the ordinary citizen.

He said:

“The reason this information flows from the public to the police can be summed up in one word – trust.

“Trust in the police to act fairly and with integrity, trust in the police that the information will be used judiciously and without attracting retribution from anyone.

“Without that trust, information stops and police become ineffective. The police would become isolated from the community it serves; it must always act in the best interests of society and with its consent.”

Toby Harris was speaking at the Science Museum during a dinner for 250 international delegates of the Modernising Criminal Justice conference being held in London this week by the Metropolitan Police and the FBI. He told them that a police service cannot operate successfully without the implicit consent of the people it polices, or without the explicit consent of a democratically elected government.

“If both consents are present, then the police become nothing less than a controlling force, an oppressive instrument of powerful self interest groups. In some parts of the world, this will be the military, in others local ‘war lords’ and in some, the senior officers in the police force itself. If policing is thus distorted or dictated to by unrepresentative groups, the trust of the public is gone. The only possible result is a downward spiral that manifests itself in corruption, organised crime and abuses of human rights.”

He said that the police in the UK, along with other public services are more accountable now than they have ever been in their history. Apart from the Police Authority, the Audit Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabularies, the courts too ensure that police do not abuse their special responsibility. He said the Commissioner is held to account for the actions of his staff and last year had to pay out millions of pounds in damages for litigation against the Met for wrongful arrests, unlawful detention and other torts.

There are firms of solicitors who specialise in suing the police, who network with other like-minded firms to “exploit chinks in armour and weak links in systems”. Nevertheless, the UK takes accountability very seriously, he said:

“I would rather it was so, than be party to a policing system which operated without the consent of society. And I believe a police authority meeting in public and holding its police service to account is an essential part of this process.

“But the need for consent also brings with it another important element: policing must have regard to the impact it is having on the communities policed. This is not to say that you must take a softer approach to any one community but that the approach should be balanced.

“The Met is currently mounting a highly successful safer streets campaign targeting street crime which is bringing about a reduction in offences and a large number of arrests. This campaign has much community support but a significant proportion of those arrested are from a particular community.

“For community support to be retained it is important that the problems that lead the young people concerned into crime are also seen to be being addressed through targeted youth services, educational and family support and diversionary schemes.

“If that is not seen to be happening as well, community support may dwindle and gradually the concept of policing by consent will have been eroded. This will, of course, often be the responsibility of agencies other than the police.

“Part of my role as Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority is on behalf of the police service to press those other agencies to take the necessary action to complement the work of the police to ensure that the principle of community support and consent is retained.”

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