April 5, 2011
News that the UK's Police Service is keen on improving the intelligence of serving and new officers can only be a good thing. After all, the service has a murky history of killing the wrong Brazilian and, in the immortal words of Mr David Bowie "beating up the wrong guy".However, Guru notes that in unveiling plans to bring the force into the 21st century, Peter Neyroud, director of the National Police Improvement Agency, is taking the rozzers back to the middle of the 19th century for inspiration.
Likening the police force now to the medical profession in 1858, Young Roudney said policing had reached the same point as medicine reached in 1858 when legislation specified the qualifications required by doctors.
"We
have reached the same point in that the people who practice policing
and exercise their powers are qualified to do so and do things in the
right way and to protect the public in the right way," he said.
Yours Truly sees his point. If only the PC who pushed over Ian Tomlinson had a masters in management - as opposed to being a master of crowd management techniques (or kettling) perhaps things might have been different. Or if the officers who shot Brazilian electrician and non-terrorist Jean Charles de Menezes had an O Level between them, perhaps the wiring at No 2 Marsham Street in London would not still be in such a parlous state.
Of course, requiring front-line police officers to pass exams before progressing to the higher ranks of the service will no boost the number of women that reach the top in the institutionally sexist organisation as the predominently male thickos in the lower ranks fail to pass muster (although Yours Truly notes that back in 1850 women did not really have much of a say in society, so might be a tad worried about current developments).
However, as well as witnessing the professionalisation of medical practitioners, Guru notes that the 1850s were also the start of homeopathic madness that still grips the nation.
Homeopathy is all about drips of water, and talking of drips, he also notes that Andrew 'just call me Dave' Lansley's plan to set the medical profession back 150 years has been put on hold by his boss - good news for all those modern day Florence Nightingales tending to our ever-diminishing band of troops.
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