How has policing changed in your lifetime?
Policing has undoubtedly changed over the last 50 years. When I was a boy in the 1960s growing up in an urban environment, I don’t recall there being a local bobby but we did see ‘Panda Cars’ patrolling the streets and all reported crime, including burglary, seemed to be taken seriously and followed up. I would also suggest that policeman and women were respected. In the 50 years since, police presence on the street seems to have declined, minor crimes appear to be taken less seriously and the level of respect has deteriorated. While some of these changes reflect changes in the types of crime being committed and, especially in recent years, budgetary constraints, decline in the public’s respect for the police could be seen as a consequence of some high profile negative events such as the miners’ strike where the actions of the police were headline news for almost a year, the Hillsborough football disaster which is only now being fully investigated after over 25 years and the shooting of an unarmed Brazil national on the London underground.