Why a change of culture at both the top and bottom of the police is needed - Andy Brown

Instead of nothing happening we had a team of police with us that morning. They were told about footage that had been stored on video doorbells which had been installed as part of the new scheme. One of the videos showed someone arriving at the door of a home, peering at the door and then deciding that it was too securely protected and going away. The police recognised the person and inside hours an arrest was made and charges were placed.

I could not have been more pleased with the work of the team, the results of the Protect Your Home Scheme or the people who had championed and implemented the idea. Credit goes to Zoe Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire, Police Fire and Crime Commissioner. She comes from a different political party to me but I have no hesitation in saying that she and everyone else involved in the work should be proud of themselves. People in that village feel a lot safer.

This is not the only time I’ve come across impressive work. I’ve seen evidence of police taking time and care to steer challenging individuals away from criminal behaviour or get the victims of domestic violence to safety.

The police are sometimes accused of wasting their time behaving like social workers but when that work keeps someone out of jail or prevents someone from being on the sharp end of crime it is time very well spent. Few of us could match the patience and dedication that many in the force display week in week out. All of which means that when problems are reported again and again with the attitudes and behaviour of significant numbers of police officers it matters. People need to trust the police and it is very difficult for many women to do so when officers are found to have been serial rapists for years and their senior officers failed to detect basic warning signals.

It would be comforting to believe that a case like Sarah Everard’s murder by an off duty police officer was an event that revealed nothing about attitudes of all but the tiniest minority of officers. Instead, it was revealed that fellow officers joked about his pattern of bad behaviour. We keep hearing of cases where officers have nicknames like “the rapist” and have been investigated multiple times for their behaviour before going on to commit crimes that a different culture might have avoided.

Thousands of hours of good work by genuinely dedicated officers is being undermined by a culture that appears to tolerate views and behaviour that are completely unacceptable from anyone but are even more damaging in a service that the public needs to be able to trust implicitly. The extent of the problem was revealed by the views of the previous occupant of the North Yorkshire Commissioner’s role when he had to resign after casually expressing views that wrongly suggested Sarah Everard’s behaviour had contributed to her own death. From top to bottom of policing there are significant attitude problems which cannot be ignored. Too few of the good colleagues have felt able to challenge views that shame their profession without risking being mocked.

If communities are going to be able to trust the force they need to be confident that it is an organisation that represents all our communities and deals seriously with significant risks that they face. Black people are entitled to expect that the police assume their children are decent kids not categorised as more likely suspects than white adolescents. Search statistics don’t suggest that this is the case. Women need to feel safe when they report domestic violence and to be listened to with respect and provided with support when they are brave enough to come forward with evidence of sexual assault.

There is an urgent need for serious work on attitude change and that change has to come both from the top and the bottom. Senior officers are making significant promises of leading change. That is very welcome but the change also needs to come from below. Ordinary decent officers have to be brave enough to speak out and challenge bad behaviour secure in the knowledge that their colleagues will reinforce and support them instead of being treated like they have betrayed their mates.

Andy Brown is a Craven District Councillor representing Aire Valley with Lothersdale and the Green Party North Yorkshire Councillor for Aire Valley.