Police under pressure

BBC 2 screened the first part of a documentatry series last night called "Police under pressure". It looked at what it is like to police Sheffield in South Yorkshire today when police budgets have been drastically cut by the current government.

The episode centred on neighbourhood policing in the Page Hall and Parsons Cross areas of the city. Both areas have high levels of unemployment and in Page Hall this is a potentially volatile mix of "communities" - White British, British Asian and, the most recent, 700 Roma families from Slovakia. (In one slight glimmer of hope in a dark picture the White British and British Asians seemed united - albeit over their condemnation of the Roma immigrants.)

The police were shown as constantly being pulled from pillar to post to deal with calls from people claiming there was crime taking place whereas in reality it was anti social behaviour. Interestingly, the gangs of youths didn't appear to be doing anything illegal as such. There were few arrests. In fact there was some discussion over what would constitute a crime. But to the Whites and Asians, gangs of Roma youth standing on street corners talking until the small hours was deemed anti social. And, in some instances, intimidating.

In an effort to get some control over the Page Hall area (the home of the Whites, Asians and Roma) the police applied a Section 30 order in order to disperse the gangs of youths hanging round.

(Under section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 it allows the police or local authority to impose a Local Child Curfew. A local authority or local police force can ban children under 16 from being in a public place during specified hours - between 9pm and 6am - unless under the control of a responsible adult. http://www.justice.gov.uk/youth-justice/courts-and-orders/disposals/local-child-curfew)

In order to make the Section 30 work, the local inspector had to deploy a very heavy police presence all the time. This included officers mounted on horseback but also meant he had to move officers from Parsons Cross to Page Hall. Parsons Cross had been the subject of a Section 30 and it had worked with the reports of anti social behaviour greatly reduced. But of course as soon as the Parsons Cross officers were moved, youths in that area started to cause trouble again.

Put simply, there just weren't enough officers to go round.

What saddened me watching the programme was how demoralised the officers were. They looked fed up and exasperated.

Last week, I attended the National Association of Chaplains to the Police conference. The theme of the conference was "The challenges of modern policing" and the speakers (all serving police officers of different ranks) told similar stories to that shown on the programme. It is clearly part of the role of police chaplains at present to listen to officers (and police staff) as they go through this time of feeling undervalued and despondent.

My experience in Wiltshire as a volunteer chaplain suggests the issues aren't as extreme here. Nevertheless there is a continuing sense among officers (and staff) that it wouldn't take much for things to get out of control. Meanwhile "efficiencies" such as changes to shift patterns and closure of local stations meaning officers now have further to travel to start shift, will take their toll. (All officers I've spoken to find the new shift patterns disruptive to their own sleep patterns but also disruptive to their family life.)

As we watched the programme last night my wife commented "This isn't what the police should be doing" and she had a point. What Page Hall and Parsons Cross needed was input from social workers, family workers, youth workers and so on to try and fix some of the problem families. And, of course the levels of policiing that will deal with crime. But in the absence of these (and facilities such as youth clubs) the police are left picking up the pieces and sticking plasters over the wounds. Meanwhile the causes such as high levels of unemployment go untreated.

I was reminded of something one of the officers at the conference said. He'd spoken of how the police now have to pick up things that previously would have been dealt with elsewhere. But "elsewhere" has been cut too. The officer remarked "Surely there must come a time when someone gives us the authority to say 'No! We're not dealing with that.'"

I'd like to think so but the way things are I can't see it happening soon.

PS

I emailed a fellow chaplain about the programme last night. And in her reply to me this morning she said this:

"I thought the issues came over really well and I hope people and ministers start to listen. Let those who have ears hear!"

The right medicine

On our various visits to the USA, we’ve often used a Walgreens store. Walgreens is (to British eyes) a cross between Boots the Chemist and Woolworth. We first encountered Walgreen in San Francisco but have realised since they are not just in California but many other parts of the USA too.

The company started in the early part of the 20th century with a pharmacy in Chicago founded by Charles Walgreen. Since then the company has expanded and expanded and now has stores in all 50 states as well as in Washington DC.

Last Sunday morning (8th June) I heard an interview with a director of Walgreens – Randy Lewis – on BBC Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday programme. Mr. Lewis was interviewed by Clare Balding.

In a very moving interview Mr. Lewis explained how his son Austin (now aged 26) has autism. And Mr Lewis mentioned that he was always worried about how Austin would cope without his parents. Like many others with autism (and I suppose other disabilities) Austin could not get a job. This in turn led to Mr Lewis to think about whether there was a way in which the company he worked for could find a way of employing a large number of people with disabilities.

The company was at the time taking on 1,000 people a year. So Mr. Lewis came up with an idea of employing people with disabilities specifically. In fact the ultimate vision was that 1/3 of employees would have disabilities.
The important thing was that in doing this there should not be an increase in costs.

The project was agreed and now the company employs a great many people with disabilities on the same terms as those without disabilities. And the project has had an enormous change of culture to the company as a whole.

In the interview Randy Lewis made clear that as well as being driven by the thought of his son, his Christian faith was also a factor. He said that he has always felt that Christians believe in a time of hope. A time of no tears when every wrong will be righted. Therefore his understanding is how do we build this world in anticipation of that time? Something I wholly believe too.
Therefore, through wanting to do something for people like his son and driven by his Christian faith, Walgreens have become an employer of thousands of people with disabilities. And many of those had never worked before.

In the interview Randy Lewis explained that Marks & Spencer in the UK have shown great interest in what has happened at Walgreens and the American electrical retail company Best Buy have also started to adopt the approach. As he said:

“Once you have decided to do something like this, there are others who want to join you”

Walgreens have a 45% stake in the company that owns Boots in the UK and in May there were reports that Walgreen was looking to take over the company as a whole. So who knows, if that happens maybe Boots will adopt similar employment practices to Walgreens?

I find it encouraging that some companies are prepared to do the right thing and act ethically or at least try and make a difference to the lives of others. All too often large companies just don’t seem to have a heart for people. Everything is driven by the bottom line. Walgreens shows that the bottom line can still be taken care of while at the same time people can be taken care of too.

Much of my dissertation for my degree in applied theology was taken up with looking at business ethics and I particularly focused on the work of Sir William Hartley. Hartley was a 19th century self-made multi-millionaire who made his fortune from jam. But his Christian faith (he was a Methodist) dictated that he was a philanthropist. His employees had exceptional working conditions and he ensured they had health care and schooling. And he tried to ensure that his suppliers were paid fairly.

There were other companies at the time who acted in the same way – such as Cadbury and Rowntree for example.

What a better place the world would be if companies sought ways of making profit certainly but also found ways of being good employers and ethical businesses. What a better world it would be if companies did more than just play lip service to corporate responsibility.

Mind you, before we get too misty eyed over Walgreen, it is apparently looking at basing its headquarters in Switzerland in a move that would mean the loss of $4billion in taxes to the US Treasury.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/walgreen-offshore-taxes_n_5481596.html

It's the blind man, can I come in

Last weekend we met a group of friends for lunch. One friend was reminded of a time when he was regaling the group with a story and when he came to the somewhat saucy story and the pub they were in went quiet at the precise moment he came to the punch line. This caused him much embarassment and gave the friends a huge laugh.

I was then reminded of the time something similar happened to me when I was retelling a joke from the end of an episode of the Vicar of Dibley which involved a nun and a blind man. I'm not going to relate the joke here. Google it. All I will say is that at the precise moment I came to the punchline, a waitress leaned over me.

In a strange coincidence, in the week I had a visit from a blind man. That is a man who came to measure up a window for some Venetian blinds.

He had been due to arrive about 4pm but had phoned just before to say he was struck in traffic. By the time he arrived he was close on an hour late. I was hoping he'd be quick as I needed to get on with cooking dinner before my wife came home and in order for me to get out to a meeting. But the blind man wanted to talk once he realised I was a minister.

It turned out he'd been brought up in a Christian home and had attended a baptist church for many years. But as an adult he'd drifted away. But clearly his grounding had had an effect.

He shared several things he'd experienced recently. These included a conversation he'd had with a client who was a primary school teacher who wanted an old style of blinds. "I said to her 'These went out with the ark'. And she said 'What's the ark?' And I said 'You know, Noah and the ark.' But she really didn't know anything about it. What's the world coming to?"

He shared a few other things too.

He went on to tell me about a good friend of his who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease last autumn. And the man poured out his great sadness about his friend. And he said how he felt he wished there was some way that his friend would not have to go through the great suffering that will inevitably come about as the illness develops.

Close on an hour after he arrived he left. Having poured out his heart and leaving a quote for some new blinds.