The police have been busy defending themselves this weekend against any criticism of their
performance. They aim to stop elected politicians from making any comment on their performance. But David Cameron should not—and must not—back down from both his criticism of police
tactics and his conviction that the force urgently needs reforming.
The truth is that the initial police response to the riots was hopelessly inadequate. If senior police officers really do think that the Met’s performance on Saturday, Sunday and Monday was adequate, then that in and of itself makes the case for reform. Losing control of the streets in sections of the capital is a failure. As one senior minister said to me yesterday, if Sir Hugh Orde wants the police to take the credit for the success of the police operation on Tuesday night, then the police must also take the blame for the ineptitude of the police response on the first three nights of looting.
Dealing with the fallout from these riots is now central to the success of Cameron’s premiership. He cannot allow ministers, the bureaucracy or vested interests to stand in the way of the necessary policy responses.
To that end, Cameron needs to tell Theresa May that Bill Bratton — the world’s most successful policeman — must be allowed to apply for the top job at the Met. May’s decision to bar Bratton from even sending his CV in by unnecessarily stipulating that all applicants must be British is exactly the kind of obstructionism that Cameron can’t afford to tolerate in the current circumstances.
I am increasingly coming to the view that the success or failure of Cameron’s premiership depends on whether or not he is prepared to move from being a chairman of the board-style figure to being a chief executive. Whether or not he makes May back down on the Bratton question, is an early test of whether he understands that this is what he has to do.
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