Newspapers Have ‘Open Season’ On Policing

There’s currently an “open season on policing”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, after a survey found that only 14% of all police stories in the national press were positive.

Martis Media read the seven major national newspapers every day throughout April 2024. There were 752 stories that mentioned policing: 102 (13.5%) were positive; 424 (56.3%) were neutral; and 226 (30%) were negative.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush, because there are some media outlets that do promote the good work of the police and I thank them for that.

“But speaking very generally, the way that the press treats the police in this country is disgraceful. It’s not helped by the tone set by politicians and the lack of pushback by senior police leaders. It’s almost like it’s open season on policing.

“If you look at any organisation and you turn over some stones, you will find dirt, you will find bad behaviour. We are not an apologist for that kind of stuff in policing and we want to uproot it as much as anybody else.

“But, by observation and speaking to colleagues in other sectors, policing is well ahead of the curve in the way we root out corruption.

“Yet we are still lambasted for it and it needs to change, because the negative drip-drip effect has a massive impact on our cops’ morale and also the way the public perceives the police. If we have scumbags, they need to be sorted. But 99.9% of our cops are heroes and it’s disgraceful the way they’re treated.”