Jayne Dowle: Expectation and reality of what public want from police

I am relatively lucky. We live – touch wood – in an area where we aren’t often plagued by vandals, or muggers, or pestered by youths hanging around causing trouble. The most worrying thing is garden theft and opportunistic stealing. And the last time we experienced that – our brand-new hanging baskets were nicked from the front garden in broad daylight – I was quite shocked.

No local number to call, let alone an officer turning up to see what had happened. We had to ring a helpline 15 miles away in Sheffield. And while we recognised that hanging basket theft was probably fairly low down on the list of crime-fighting priorities, we were alarmed by the general lack of interest. Heaven forbid that we are ever seriously burgled. I have seen it happen to my parents, and I know how traumatic it can be.

So when I hear that funding cuts could lead to 10,000 police officers disappearing from the beat in the next few years, it makes me wonder what we really want the police to do for us.

This damning figure has been conjured up by the Labour opposition – it’s nice to see that they are doing something after all – and, naturally, the Government disputes it. Ministers argue that the proposed spending cuts of 20 per cent won’t lead to fewer officers on the streets, but will be absorbed by combining back-office functions across police authorities, and possibly, combining some of England and Wales’ 42 police authorities themselves.

Whatever the outcome, it will no doubt lead to more “policing by helpline”, numbers to ring for this, and websites to log on for that, and fewer actual visible officers. And that’s the first thing that the public will notice. However safe you imagine your area, it is always good to see a couple of coppers taking a stroll, making sure potential trouble-makers know that they are being watched.

The most vulnerable members of society, the very young and the elderly, find this especially reassuring. I don’t suppose this kind of thing figures too much in Home Office calculations, but experience of crime can have a very upsetting effect on youngsters and colour their view of the police for life.

My friend’s daughter is terrified of “robbers” after a spate of domestic thefts, including one from her own kitchen when the family were actually at home. The only thing that pacifies her is the reassurance that the police caught the culprits in the end.

And I think that’s what we all want – to know that the police have everything in their power to do their jobs. Because think about it, who would actually be a police officer these days?

The expectations placed upon them by the public – and the more hysterical sections of the media – are far too high. Every time there is a major incident, such the Raoul Moat affair, questions are asked about whether smaller rural forces are effective. Every time there is a particular awful murder, such as the case of Joanna Yeates in Bristol, questions are asked if the police fail to arrest a suspect within days, if not hours.

We have to balance our expectations with the fact that we are not living in a television crime drama, but in the real world, with all the challenges and obstacles that brings.

This brings me on to how our perceptions of crime impact upon what we expect from our police officers. I didn’t bother to log on to the Government’s new “crime-mapping” website because I can see with my own eyes the level of crime in my neighbourhood. And anyway, being a natural cynic, I wasn’t sure that I would believe what I read. Statistics tell only half of the story. I want to know that crime is being recorded, sure, but what I really want to know is, should there be a problem, would the officers involved in solving it come quickly, and be courteous and efficient?

When Nick Herbert, the police minister, talks about his commitment to “less form-filling and more crime-fighting”, I wonder who he imagines, in his new streamlined police force, will be around to tick all those boxes. Officers who would be better employed on the frontline, perhaps?

I know where I would like a police officer to be when I need one, and it’s not in front a computer, or on the end of a phone.