Should Senior Police officers have been lobbying MP's? The Police are public servants, in no way different to the armed forces, fire service or even civil servants.
Had Senior officers in the armed services not wanted to go to war in Iraq would it have been acceptable for them to lobby the MP's? Should civil servants who disagree with, or agree with, a Government Policy lobby MP's to get them to vote for the policy?
In my view the answer is clearly "No".
The Police must be neutral if they are to deal with the issues of justice and the arrest of citizens. Working and lobbying for a policy they agree with, and the Government is backing, should not have happened.
2 comments:
But we do allow almost any lunatic fringe group to lobby or are the police to be excluded on the grounds that they may just know what they are talking about?
Fair point!
I think the real problem though is that the Police had put their case and should not need to use the methods of the lunatic fringe groups to get the outcome they desire.
If they had made their case well enough in the first place then maybe they would not have needed to lobby. Another concern is that they lobbied not for the issue on its merits but because they were instructed to do it by the Home Secretary.
I must admit that I still do not understand the case they are making for 90 day detention. In Spain they can detain for five days, in the USA for seven days and neither of those countries, despite far worse atrocities, have seen the need to make this dramtic change.
Maybe I am just not well informed enough? This is not an anti Police position because I have the highest regard for the Police as my Father was once in the Met.
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