Law and order has always been at or close to the top of the public's concerns. Given the continuing problems with organised gangs reaping the profits of the drug trade and the recent boom in knife and gun crime, proactive policing has rarely been more in demand.
Irrespective of the views of Home Office civil servants, quangocrats or unelected Police Authorities, the public who live at the sharp end of the crime problem know full well that what is needed is a tough focus by real police officers on catching criminals.
It beggars belief, therefore, to see some of the absurd schemes targeted at the innocent rather than the guilty that police forces are pursuing.
A couple of months ago, Northamptonshire Police introduced a tactic of shouting "Lock your doors" through a megaphone at innocent householders.
In July, PCSOs in Hove started climbing through windows into people's houses with no invitation or warning in order to lecture them about home security.
And now we learn that Police Officers in Richmond are breaking into cars that have unlocked doors or ajar windows, taking the owner's valuables and leaving them a note saying they have to come to the police station to reclaim them (and be given another lecture, naturally).
This kind of nonsense is not just a waste of taxpayers' money and police officers' time, it is genuinely hazardous to the standing and enforcement of the law. The law rests on the consent of the law-abiding majority, and even more crucially their co-operation.
The vast majority of successful policing relies on helpful members of the public phoning up to report crimes and coming forward with witness statements or other evidence. If you think that the police are there to help you, the chances are that you will do just that.
But if your experience of the police is of officers shouting through megaphones, clambering into your house without permission or stealing your wallet or satnav and putting you through huge inconvenience, then that enthusiasm to assist is likely to wane. If the law becomes at best a joke and at worst an invasive and disruptive force for the innocent, then the fight against crime will become nigh on impossible.
The police must work for the people - not treat the people as if we are schoolchildren for them to instruct and boss about. Such has been the erosion of that healthy, respectful relationship that it is imperative for voters to be given direct control through elected police authorities. I can confidently predict that anyone proposing any of the above policies would get short shrift from the electorate.
