Met Police: Is public trust in the police force waning?

Is public trust in the Met Police force waning?

Transcript

00:00I have every sympathy for police officers, but at the same sort of time, you know, as

00:05a member of the public, we want them to be better. So it's a really long answer. There's

00:10no instant solution to this because, yeah, any other failure organisation, well, you

00:14might still say, well, close it down. But of course, you can't do that. You are dealing

00:19with the people you brought in as police officers. So maybe there's an argument because more

00:24training is required.

00:26The inspectorate said its use of stop and search was both fair and effective, adding

00:30that the overwhelming majority of recorded grounds for stop and search were reasonable.

00:35If there was an instant solution, it would have been taken already at the end. This is

00:39not just some add water and things will get better. And, you know, obviously, you're always

00:44looking for the best possible sort of leadership of the sort of the people that you've got

00:49out on the streets. Well, again, I come back to this thing that being a police officer

00:55is not something that should be taken lightly. You put yourself in the sort of the, you know,

01:01in the public face, you put a uniform on. There's a sort of whole aspect of professionalism.

01:05So you know, and a lot that goes with it. But as I say, the sort of the police force

01:10that sort of I knew or was aware of, you know, going way back is very different to the one

01:16now. So quite clearly, police forces have to sort of represent the sort of communities

01:20that they deal with. So there's a whole set of issues. And dare I say, with that has come

01:25a cultural change. Now, of course, there are some who argue that, of course, maybe the

01:29police force need to go in hard. You know, that's the way to sort of deal with crime.

01:33But of course, we know that that leads us down sort of a really slippery slope. And

01:37it's not one that sort of is good for sort of communities. But policing by and large

01:41should be something which, of course, is on behalf of the people and for the people, you

01:46know, that they should be seen to be sort of something which, of course, people sort

01:50of welcome. But I don't doubt that in some areas of the country and some areas of many

01:55cities, of course, they are sort of resented for historical reasons.