Adam Smith Institute

Last week on Tuesday evening a mother of two was threatened with violence during a burglary, whilst her husband was away at work. This had happened before in the area, and not just on one separate occasion but on a total of 6 (5 of which happened to colleagues of the mother's husband). The organization which they work for is now looking into arranging their own private security service to guard the property of their employees when they are away. All of this raises a simple question: where were the police?

It is not hard to imagine that the police force in question may have gone out on strike early, but in fact they hadn't. They were doing exactly what every other police force in the UK does, reacting to crime, rather than preventing it. The police force in Britain today does little of what we would demand of them. This modern force, that we allegedly have at our disposal, has become not much more than a political puppet shackled by the minutiae of centralized bureaucracy. This is the main reason why they failed to piece together the obvious pattern emerging in the case of the above burglaries.

The police themselves are culpable of nothing less than a simple dereliction of their basic duty: to protect the public. We want them to patrol our communities and prosecute successfully those that commit crimes. The public of Britain would hardly be in the wrong if they demanded that the police, should they strike, stay out. If other organizations are employing private security services due to the shortcomings of the state run offerings, then let competition burst forth. We could then have communities policed as they demanded and not for some politicians folly, and a reduction in the council tax bill as a service is privatized.

And yes, in case you were wondering, the mother and father in question were Alex Curran and Steven Gerrard.

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