Politicians Need To Back Officers

Police officers need tangible support from politicians, not “warm words read off a script sheet”, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said ahead of the party conference season.

The Conservative party conference is being held in Manchester and the Labour conference in Liverpool, both in the first two weeks of October.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said the main policing issue he wanted politicians of all parties to address was the lack of support for the police and what their priorities should be.

He said: “We really need to have a Royal Commission to look into the state of policing in this country. We police by consent. That, by its nature, causes significant problems with us having to police in a way that is about negotiation and appealing to people, rather than other police services across the world who police by force.

“What do the public want? We look at officers who are under scrutiny for driving in relation to off-road bikes, yet the public are coming to us en masse and complaining that we don’t do enough to deal with those bikes. We need to start listening to what the public wants from the police, and we need to start acting on it.”

Steve added that politicians making comments on live cases was often unhelpful.

He said: “You hear unhelpful comments by people who say we need justice for the families in live cases. We need justice, full stop – justice is for everybody.

“The rhetoric from certain political leaders is severely unhelpful. The majority of them wouldn’t have the courage to put on a police uniform themselves. We need to start seeing tangible support, rather than just warm words that are read off a script sheet.”