How the career of the British bobby is changing
Stiffer entry criteria aim to make the police more effective—and more diverse
BEFORE he first put on his uniform, Paul Clements had never seen a bar fight, still less joined in one. Fisticuffs had sometimes seemed inevitable when he was negotiating bail-outs at the European Commission, but they never broke out. “I hadn’t had any exposure to the police except for a speeding fine in 1996,” he says. But after only a few weeks as a constable and a year’s training, the former Bank of England official was put in charge of 100-odd cops.
He is one of a new breed of policemen who could reshape the service. The new home secretary, Sajid Javid, gave his first big speech to the conference of the Police Federation, a cops’ union, this week, assuring officers that he would be “standing with you”. But reforms carried out by a previous home secretary—Theresa May, who is now prime minister—could soon overturn the service’s make-up.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Swot team"
Britain May 26th 2018
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