Police and public trust

Trust thought for today - the police & public trust. Hesitate to wade in, but have been asked for thoughts after Police failures resulting in the murder of Sarah Everard became known, so here are thoughts using the 7 signals:

* Perhaps the focus of attention should be on ‘being trustworthy’, worthy of public trust, rather than on ‘building trust’ as an aim in itself as Police chief Cressida Dick proposed? Semantic I know, but this way round it reinforces an Intent that the focus is on improving one’s own behaviour and aligning that to public values & expectations and not an approach which starts with ‘how do we get them to trust us’ which identifies communications solutions.

* Delve deep into the integrity & culture issues that got them there. Depressingly familiar are behaviours which lead to ignoring problems, closing ranks & putting saving face above public good. Eg from BBC "A FOI request showed that more than half of Met officers found guilty of sexual misconduct over a four-year period to 2020 kept their jobs, a total of 43 officers out of 83, or 52%.”

* Consider what about the culture & attitudes lead to the very peculiar advice given to women when being arrested they should err, call 999, run away or get 'streetwise' about what one can be arrested. Most look like promoting resisting arrest. This detachment from their own responsibility & the repercussions of communications doesn’t inspire trust, & could lead to very undesirable repercussions as wrong doers also decide that this approach is now legitimate. Trouble is, the answer will end up, perhaps understandably, being narrowing the ‘messaging’ and people allowed to speak to ‘the spokesperson’, also not good.

* Be more inclusive & engaged as a matter of course. Involve women, women’s groups, internal and external critics in identifying what trustworthiness & its evidence looks like, how to better understand problems and devise workable sustainable long-term solutions. Not just a consultation for the report which stops there.

* Be innovative in openness & transparency overall and to provide ‘evidence of trustworthiness’ about the process, the findings, the outcomes, the actions taken in response, and to violence against women in general. So many times, as with a report prepared earlier this year on the subject, organisations say they are ‘working tirelessly to address’ x y z, and that’s the last you hear of it. Perhaps a dedicated part of the website?

None of this is easy and the job unenviable, and probably undoable. Also, perhaps those who trust the police still will and those that don't won't. But it may be a catalyst for a big rethink and better approaches to violence against women in the police. Let's hope so.

For interest here is what is on the Met website already:

https://lnkd.in/gk8m3r62