Now there was a man. PC 'Tug' Wilson on duty in Slab Square (as we used to call it). A very well liked and well respected policeman and as the photograph clearly shows, he was in fact taller than the Town House. Though I expect that was partly the helmet.
Anyway, to my recent visitors from Northumbria Police (surfing in from Ponteland, I see), I thought that if you decided to drop in again, it would be nice to have something in your line, you know, being on the job and all that. You're very welcome, I should say, and do feel free to come again. Since you arrived via the Hayley Adamson/PR post, I suspect you were only Googling to see just how much slagging off you're getting out here in the media and blogosphere.
I would hope you'd get the impression that I actually have a lot of time for the police; I know that these days image can't be entirely ignored; and I bet you're sick as a dog about hearing Peel's old gag about the police seeking and preserving public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law. It's a different world, I understand that. You've apologised. I'm not even going to make anything much of you having time to check out tiny little blogs like this one. But this story angered me particularly because it suggested to me that there was a sad loss of vision at the top of your force about what policing means.
God knows what Tug Wilson would have said about it.
Tug was, for thirty odd years, Nottingham's "chief" constable.
ReplyDeleteIn fact his presence in Slab Square could be seen as a very early form of marketing by the City Police.
He stood for the force as a visible, commanding and unflappable presence on the streets.
Greg, welcome. You're right about the early form of marketing, but what a good way to do it. A human presence - albeit a bloody big one - on the street, where everyone in town could see him and know exactly what he was there for. Not some PR wonks fretting about the headlines.
ReplyDeleteI know you won't take this bet, since you obviously know already - but I'd stake £500 that if you wandered round Nottingham and asked people 'name a Nottingham police officer', you would get Tug mentioned at least 10 times as often as any of the 'real' Chief Constables in his day or since.
Oh I don't know. Sure Tug was known by everyone in Nottingham but if you talked to locals of a "certain" age they'd all remember the splendidly named Captain Popkess. The man who created Nottingham City Police as the finest in and most advanced force in Britain. How many of his successors will be remembered fifty years hence?
ReplyDeleteFew, few indeed. But times have changed and the system doesn't tolerate maverick geniuses in senior positions. Nor does it allow senior positions to be filled for 30 years at a stretch. Today's 'seniors' seem very lightweight sometimes.
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