Over the past week, media coverage of Suella Braverman’s opinions on the policing of protest has shifted from anything to do with the Met Police and the provisions of the Public Order Act, to the principle of independent policing and the significance of Armistice Day to the nation, and, finally, to the murky world of cabinet members’ ambitions and the wider power struggles within the Conservative Party.
So, let’s just wind the clock back a bit: this Home Secretary isn’t the first politician to think they would make better decisions than police officers, with the underlying assumption that policing is easy. When police and crime commissioners (PCCs) were first elected in 2012, a number of them behaved rather too much like they were entering a virtual reality game where they could play at being cops. They wanted access to the exciting bits of policing, with their views on operational matters treated as directives. Wiser chief constables patiently exposed PCCs to enough of the risks and responsibilities that come with policing that they were more than relieved to back off.
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