7 days ago
The majority of the public just want us to get on with the job of keeping them safe
The end of woke policing may be at hand thanks to a landmark High Court judgment which makes police participation in LGBT + Pride events unlawful.
As a senior police officer, I had been banging that drum for many years.
My professional view had always been that taking part in Pride parades - in the same way that participating in any kind of activist cause whether it be animal rights, Scottish independence or Black Lives Matter - simply does not square with the concept of an impartial police service.
My own experience when raising objections to taking part in Pride events as a Police Scotland officer was that I was committing something akin to heresy by refusing to get behind such a crucial social justice movement.
Could I not see the good this will do to forging better links with communities?
In truth, I object neither to Pride parades nor any social justice movement.
My concern was purely on the basis that a supposedly neutral and impartial police service should restrict its activities to policing rather than participating in such events.
Whether dancing in uniform covered in rainbow paint or marching alongside animal rights protesters dressed like beagles, the police have no business participating in these movements.
This has been a slippery slope for the police service.
Ever since the new breed of chief police officers indoctrinated in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) took the helm, our police officers have not simply been permitted to take part in Pride marches but have been actively encouraged to do so.
There was an expectation that senior police officers in particular would march in full police uniform at annual events.
I, and a small number of senior colleagues, refused to do so for concerns that this was against our oath of impartiality, or 'without fear or favour'.
I t clearly crosses the line of perceived neutrality by openly supporting a particular social justice movement in an official capacity.
The High Court ruling sends a strong, clear and long overdue message to Britain's chief constables, including Police Scotland's boss, Jo Farrell.
Their indulgence and support for this nonsense must now come to an end.
Not only are the public sick and tired of seeing cops dancing around at marches while many communities experience police station closures, reduced policing visibility and soaring crime rates, but the law has now unequivocally spoken on the matter. It must stop!
While perhaps breathtaking that it has taken a High Court ruling to confirm what for many of us was an obvious position for the police, the ruling will not sit comfortably with those senior officers within the service who have pushed this narrative for so many years.
You can be sure that careers have been made on the back of the 'progressive' narrative, by pushing the DEI agenda.
Many of the highly paid DEI consultants within Police Scotland will now be in crisis mode, sitting in hastily convened meetings scratching their heads and wondering how they can now signal the organisation's progressive virtues.
I have no doubt, too, that this ruling will be strongly resisted in some quarters. Policing has bred a generation of social justice activists at all levels of the hierarchy, many of whom will not take well to being told 'no more marching'.
For the most part, the public just want the police to get on with the job of making their communities safe.
This means locking up the bad people and protecting the good people - and discharging the office of constable without fear or favour.
Whilst having cops attend Pride processions may help ease the social conscience of Jo Farrell and other progressive police leaders, it achieves none of policing's core objectives of keeping the streets safe.
I, for one, wholeheartedly welcome the judgment.
* Dave Marshall is a former Grampian Police constable and an ex-chief superintendent at the College of Policing and the British Transport Police. He is author of The Fall of Policing, available on Amazon.
