More Law or more Gospel?
25 June 2011
Should more police resources go into Easterhouse or into the Northern Constabulary?
Such a question highlights that some areas are more law-abiding than others. Why is this? The usual answer of unemployment, poor housing and fewer opportunities is wearing thin. Multitudes suffer from all three but do not turn to crime. Multitudes of white collar professionals, without these problems, bring companies, banks and countries to their knees – but not to pray.
The solution for Easterhouse and similar places is not more law but more Gospel. More law-breaking suggests more need for the Gospel, and that what is preached in these localities is not the Christian Gospel. Yet how can one expect a credible application of the Gospel in public life when politicians cannot articulate Christian principles with any conviction?
Many people suspect that more resources will be pulled towards the Central Belt of Scotland, confirmed by the recent Scottish Government consultation paper. So it is no surprise that the Strathclyde Police Chief Constable is in favour of a single police force, while those in peripheral forces are not. Stephen House of Strathclyde said: “An argument strongly and emotionally advanced by those who are against a single force is this idea that as soon as it is created you will see a drain on resources from across the country into the central belt” and that using such arguments was “scaremongering”. However his own argument that smaller forces cannot cope with major incidents and in particular a terrorist incident is just as emotional and scaremongering, playing on the fears of the public. About regional forces he said: “It doesn’t make financial sense, nor does it make operational sense.” This only proves that he cannot make sense of them, so why should we listen to such emotive arguments? Centralising and re-structuring too often ends up in bureaucracy, and unnecessary nationalisation too often hides inefficiency and incompetent management.
However this centralisation agenda is opposed by the think tank Reform Scotland in its report Striking the Balance, which recommends a force for each local authority. This shows the wide range of opinions; but according to Stephen House these other opinions “don’t make sense”.
The Scottish Government consultation on The Future of Policing showed that there is no great momentum for a single police force in Scotland.
In recent years we have needed the independence of one police force to investigate the attitudes and behaviour of another police force. This is an important element for British policing which is struggling with an image problem among certain sections of the community.
One size does not fit all. Most people are sceptical of a nationalised police force.
