I’ve often pilloried the national media in this country for what I perceive to be the erroneous impression they give – on a continual basis – of the private security sector. I’m not excluding the broadsheets in this statement, either. I well remember the day the Security Industry Authority (SIA) went ‘live’, and a report in The Times – Heaven forbid – referred to security guards rather than officers. Woeful.
The fact that the Government has since insisted all of us (including the Regulator) call operatives ‘guards’ again is neither here nor there. Or is it? I happen to think that we should be using the term security ‘officer’. Indeed, I always have done during my tenure as Editor of Security Management Today, and always will.
Aren’t we in the business of trying to professionalise security? That being so, employing the word ‘guard’ surely begets all the old, generalist cliches of people sitting in gatehouses with a copy of The Sun and a mug of tea, stirring only every so often to open the perimeter gates when a visitor arrives.
These days, there’s a bit more to ‘guarding’ than that, you know. Officers are licensed and regulated and want to be recognised for the job they do. They are performing heroic deeds, highlighted this very month at the BSIA’s Security Officer Awards. In many cases, putting their own lives on the line or saving the lives of others. Let’s give them the respect they deserve.
Mundane truths?
Anyway, I digress. The whole reason I’ve been focusing on security issues in the media of late stemmed from a comment made by Andrew Bridges, chief inspector of probation in England and Wales. Bridges feels there is a need to highlight “mundane truths rather than exciting fallacies”, and suggests the media is making it increasingly difficult to conduct a rational debate on, primarily, the criminal justice system.
One mundane truth is that, whether the Government likes to admit it or not, this country is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic. The public’s perception is that such crime is out of control. That perception has indeed been fuelled by the media and, in particular, the red top tabloids, but on this occasion they’re reporting the facts of genuine attacks and murders rather than the massaged statistics to which we are continually exposed by Westminster.
The most recent crime survey conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service shows that the number of knife crimes and violent deaths in the Capital is falling, in spite of the recent spate of fatal stabbings. From July 2007 through to June this year, there were apparently 9,997 reports of knife crime compared with 11,642 for the previous 12 months. Nonetheless, this month an 18-year-old lad became the 21st teenager to die in ‘violent circumstances’ in London since the New Year dawned. Plainly, there is a problem, and a very serious one at that.
The Met will tell you that knife crime has fallen, then, but one wonders how many incidents have passed by unreported? The current figures, however accurate they may be, still mean that there is a knife-related incident or crime taking place in our Capital city every 50-odd minutes. Knife crime is now four times more prevalent than gun crime. Who can forget the case of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen, murdered on the streets of south east London last May (albeit with a shard of broken glass), or indeed the fatal stabbing of Lylle Tulloch in a Southwark stairwell. Tulloch was only a year Mizen’s junior.
Knife crime would certainly seem to be affecting young people in a disproportionate way. A Youth Justice Board Survey has reported a 12% increase in the number of teenagers carrying knives since 2002. In 2006, one-in-five of all those convicted for possessing a knife were aged between ten and 17. In London, new Mayor Boris Johnson has waxed lyrical on the installation of metal detectors in schools and equipping the police service with mobile detection equipment. Is that going to be enough? I doubt it very much.
What, exactly, is being done?
What has central Government been doing to address the problem of knife crime? Well, there was the amnesty of 2006. Almost 100,000 knives were handed in. Who surrendered their stash? Certainly not members of the criminal fraternity. More likely farmers or gardeners who happened to stumble across an old machete in the shed and did their public duty. Raising the minimum age of knife ownership to 18 doesn’t seem to have had much effect, either. As for the imposition of a ban on Samurai swords, well – I don’t think many ne’er-do-wells are intent on fitting one of those inside their hoodie, do you?
Focusing purely on deterrence in relation to knife crime itself is totally and wholly inadequate, and misses the point. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s Tackling Gangs in Action Programme is all well and good, but the Government must be made to recognise the root cause of the knife culture and, indeed, crime in general.
It is seated in a deep, devisive social malaise that we have lived within for some time now. In many of today’s youth, there is disrespect, not to say a total disregard for any kind of authority. We have bred a generation of ‘latchkey kids’ who think PlayStations are the be-all-and-end-all. They stick their feet on the seats in trains and think nothing of it. They continually spit in the street, and offer a volley of verbal abuse – or worse still brandish a weapon – to anyone who dares challenge their behaviour.
That situation has arisen because of two fundamental truths. In today’s world, the constant thrust is towards materialism. How big is your house? What job do you do? How much do you earn? Where do you do your shopping? We are judged on all of these things. Everyone wants everything. They want their possessions and their life to be bigger and better than the next person’s, and they want that now. They don’t wish to go through the tedious process of earning it. For the disillusioned teenager without parental direction, it’s far easier to pull a knife and steal an iPod than find a job and honestly earn the money to pay for one.
Shouldering the blame
Adults must shoulder the blame for this societal mess. If parents behave with abandon, why should or will their children be any different? The rudeness and lack of respect shown by so many teenagers is merely aping the risible behaviour of their elders. Last summer, I was walking home from work and noticed four young boys using kitchen knives to strip newly-planted trees of all their branches. Worse still, the parents of these children were standing on the doorstep watching them do it, laughing out loud. Abhorrent.
We all need to think long and hard about the example we set the generation of tomorrow, and distance ourselves immediately from the unfettered culture of greed that has burgeoned over the past decade. Direction has to come from the top. From the elders and betters, but those that sit in Westminster, for example, have behaved abominably. One need only refer to the small matter of MPs’ expenses (paid for, by the way, out of the public purse that, ultimately, is funded by you and I). If those that govern us are seen to abuse the system then the masses will follow suit and not think twice about it.
The Government has fuelled the greed culture, borrowing itself into a huge black hole and building an economy founded on the ‘buy now, pay later’ philosophy. Clearly, it’s not working. Nor is the fight against knife crime, whatever the official ‘statistics’ might say. The BBC’s nightly news bulletins and the daily newspapers are telling the real story of what’s happening on our streets. It’s never pleasant to watch or read, but for shedding light on the truth of the matter the media moguls must be applauded.
Ultimately, the drive has to be on instilling in today’s youth the overriding requirement for them to respect the law and the rights of others. The job of doing so rests squarely with the parents, not the childrens’ teachers or members of the police service or even employers (although all of these parties are beholden to display the strictest moral code, of course). Morals, how to behave and respect, though, are taught, bred and nurtured in the home, or at least they should be.
City life captured on camera
Have any of you managed to catch an episode of CCTV Cities yet? The series began on Channel 5 on 1 July, with famous undercover reporter Donal MacIntyre purporting to offer “unique access to Control Rooms and police forces across the UK” so that he can show the nation how criminals are being caught in the act.
I sat down to watch last week’s episode, which was all about the City of London, and I have to say at the end of the programme I thought to myself: “So what?”
It smacked of another ‘Police, Camera, Action’ ‘special’. The format? Quick shot of the Control Room. Police operator spots a drink-fuelled scrap in the street. Police operator calls colleagues ‘on the ground’. Colleagues on the ground apprehend miscreants. All neatly rounded up at the end with what prosecutions did or didn’t materialise.
I suppose from the general public’s perspective this was merely feeding the populist bandwagon for so-called ‘observational documentaries’. That’s all we seem to want these days, along with soap operas, the vacuous and pointless Big Brother, the National Lottery Draw (the ‘greed’ thing again) and programmes about chefs ‘pan-frying’ swordfish or fighting against each other to make the perfect three-egg omelette in less time than it takes the clock to move forward by 60 seconds. Highly intellectual stuff, isn’t it?.
The important questions haven’t been addressed
Where was the commentary on what hours the operators have to work, and what kind of conditions they work in? How are developments in camera technology making CCTV Control Room managers’ lives easier, if indeed they are? What about the whole question of evidence in Court, and how CCTV footage is used to prosecute offenders? Where was the mention of the National CCTV Strategy, and what needs to be done to make CCTV even more effective? How is the mix of technology and manpower manifesting itself in the real world?
“When they spot trouble, the operators can zoom in and direct police straight to the scene,” says Donal in the programme’s publicity blurb. “They’re providing instant intelligence in the fight against crime.” Come on, Donal. We know all that, and so does anyone who reads the newspapers or religiously watches police documentaries. In other words, most of the general public.
Although it’s great to have a programme on prime-time TV devoted to surveillance of our public spaces, and it places the issue of CCTV on the wider socio-political agenda, this programme hasn’t moved the debate on one iota. From my perspective, it singularly fails to ask far more questions than it answers.
Thank God… The red tape and targets are no more!
Not before time, it has emerged that our beleaguered policemen and women are to be given greater freedom from red tape and targets under a Government ‘New Deal’ launched by the Home Secretary. All but one of the force targets across England and Wales are to be scrapped as part of Green Paper reforms.
The Government has seen sense in abolishing the Stop and Account Forms, which were a ludicrous and unworkable idea from the word ‘Go’. Now, a promised GB pound 25 million is to be spent on hand-held ‘mobile data devices’ that should help cut paperwork.
There is also a new ‘policing pledge’ wherein emergencies will receive response within 15 minutes, all 999 calls are to be answered within 10 seconds and non-emergencies attended inside a 48-hour period. Time for the Government to put what money it has left where its mouth is, then.
Senior officers are reportedly happy that they’ve been listened to in the Green Paper, and The Police Federation of England and Wales is smiling. However, there’s still no genuine consensus on what’s really working in the overall fight to cut crime, while cynics would suggest that offering former Federation chairman Jan Berry – a vociferous and frequent critic of Jacqui Smith – the job of ‘champion for cutting bureaucracy’ smacks of political appeasement.
Just the other day, I saw two police officers on patrol in my home town. In my neighbourhood, no less. The fact that I was so stunned to witness this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence tells its own story.
Until next time…
Brian Sims, Editor, SMT (29.7.2008)