He can't hear you

Hands up who thinks the blogosphere has been silent on the subject of the police and terrorism. No? No takers? Well it seems that Sir Ian Blair, top cop in the met, needs to broaden his horizons:

Making his first public comments since the government's failed bid to extend the time terror suspects could be held without charge to 90 days, Sir Ian voiced "frustration" at the public "silence" on what it wanted the police to do.

Of course we don't actually know what he means by 'public' as he hasn't made that clear. Indeed it is hard to know what kind of public forum would satisfy his concerns. A phone in? A government appointed focus group? A referrendum? A tally of all letters sent by the public to their MPs? A visit to the local pub?

The Guardian elaborates:

In his lecture, Sir Ian is expected to say policing is hampered by the fact that there is little dispassionate, thought-through public examination of just what it is we are here to do in the 21st century - to fight crime or to fight its causes, to help build stronger communities or to undertake zero tolerance." Britain needs to articulate what kind of police it wants. "The silence can no longer continue."

...

"My central thesis is that the the British people need to decide what mechanisms they need to work out what kind of police force this should be, otherwise it will drift into doing it on its own, and that's not right."

Actually it all sounds eminently reasonable.

Posted by John at November 16, 2005 11:10 AM | TrackBack