Fight against crime hindered by 'woke mindset' of top brass, says police leader
Police forces are being hindered in the fight against crime by the "woke mindset" of senior officials, the leader of rank and file officers in the region has said.
West Midlands Police Federation chair Richard Cooke said too much time was being wasted debating issues such as 'critical race theory' and 'white privilege'.
He backed calls from Home Secretary Suella Braverman for a return to "common sense policing" and said officers wanted to focus on "catching bad guys" rather than being bogged down with "social work".
Sgt Cooke, who represents around 7,500 officers in the West Midlands, said: "I don’t think you’ll find many Police Federation members who don’t want to focus on common sense policing.
"I agree with the Home Secretary; there is a ‘woke’ mindset at the top that leads to much time wasted discussing, for example, ‘critical race theory’ or ‘white privilege’ or whether there should be extra categories of hate crimes.
"I say leave all that to the academics and politicians. Police officers should focus on stopping the crime and violence which disproportionately affects our young, diverse communities using the laws laid down to the maximum effect – for example, stop and search.
"The vast majority of police officers join the force through a desire to help others, keep their communities safe, investigate crime and catch the bad guys.
"But that role has become something quite different in recent years with more and more of our time taken up with what I would describe as social work – eight out of 10 calls for service are non-crime related.
"It begs the question - if we don’t go, who will? There is a current crisis in our ambulance services – this has a massive knock-on to police work, for example.
"We can’t just leave people who are in need to go fight crime."
At a conference in Westminster Ms Braverman told officers the public wanted to see them fighting crime, not "debating gender on Twitter".
She told the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) joint summit with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC): "The way to ensure public confidence in the police is to focus on getting the basics right.
"What I call ‘common sense policing’ - the kind of policing the law-abiding majority deserves and expects.
"No politically correct distractions, just good old-fashioned policing – with a relentless focus on making our streets, homes and transport networks safer.
Her comments were rejected by the chair of the APCC.
