Sunday, January 09, 2011

John Lewis continues to be the metaphorce of choice. Police to be taught politeness by JL staff. See this article on police friendly site.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

The Campaign for Plain English attack the waste of time and space of police slogans on websites and sides of cars etc. Read the Guardian report here.

These are described as meaningless and sometimes nonsensical:

"Some are just meaningless. Northumbria's slogan is 'Total Policing'. What does that mean? Do some police forces operate 'partial policing'?

They playfully suggest we chose who to report our crime to:

"Or is it being suggested that victims of crime should shop around? Is it better to be mugged in Suffolk because the police there are 'Taking Pride in Keeping Suffolk Safe' than in Northamptonshire, where they are 'Putting Communities First'?"

No criminologist, or indeed police source is quoted. So here goes.

It is just as likely that this 'marketing' comes in the wake of rampant 'managerialism' (see McLaughlin, E. and Murji, K. 2001. Lost connections and new directions: neo-liberalism, new public managerialism and the modernization of the British police).

And 'ordinary coppers' likely to be fairly dismissive of it too.

So have to agree with CPE so let's get some community servicers to rub slogans off for them. Sure some scallies might do it for free, if a little roughly.