A clip round the earhole did my dad no harm

I’m a bit old fashioned in my view of the importance of the bobby on the beat. It comes from my dad telling me stories about how the local police officer, who everyone knew by name, used to give him and his brother a ‘clip round the earhole’ and threaten to tell their mum (my grandma) they had been up to no good.

This story always stuck with me for two reasons: first, I always found it funny that he was more worried about his mum finding out than he was about getting into trouble with the police; and second, his total respect for the police because they were so embedded in the community.

I would like to see us be able to get back to that. Maybe not the ‘clip round the earhole’ but the police respected and an essential part of our communities. That is why I was so pleased to hear last week the Prime Minister shares the same belief in community policing. Labour’s neighbourhood policing guarantee will mean every community will have access to a named police officer. 13,000 more bobbies will be on the beat by the end of 2029, with 3,000 officers being recruited by the start of next year. Derbyshire Police have seen their funding increased by over £15 million and I’ll be pushing hard for High Peak’s fair share of these extra resources.

Alongside this extra resource, we are also giving the Police the powers they need to effectively root out anti-social behaviour in our communities. The Crime and Policing Bill, which I supported recently in Parliament, will introduce respect orders, which will give police and local authorities new powers to tackle persistent offenders and ban them from specific areas, such as town centres and public spaces. It will also give Police more powers to seize vehicles used in antisocial behaviour, like off-road motorbikes, and to crackdown on shoplifting, including removing the previous low-value limit for shoplifting. 

We might not be able to go back to the style of community policing my dad enjoyed but we are moving in the right direction with a community policing approach that hopefully we will all respect.