Can We Trust the Police?

First Broadcast: 
Monday 25 June 2012 at 21:00
BBC Three
Special Edition Films LTD.




I have always found the documentaries broadcast on BBC Three to be full of truly shocking and thought-provoking content, displayed in a gripping and thrilling way.  This is particularly true for the Crime Season that BBC Three is promoting at the moment.  The series, Our Crime, which was broadcast back in April, demonstrated how less fearful of the police people have become, even going to the extent of filming their own shocking crimes and posting them online. So Can We Trust the Police? was a must-watch for me. 

A lot of the content was certainly thought-provoking and it did shock me, but it didn't grab me in the way that previous BBC Three docs had.  The opening to the programme showed swarms of police partaking in extremely violent events, and scenes of last years' riots in London. These images set the programme up to be full of adrenaline - it wasn't. But it still was a very thought-provoking documentary.

The programme looked at a number of isolated cases, one involving a friend of Adam Deacon, who was fronting the programme.  David was his name, and he had recently been attacked by the police after being wrongly accused of a crime.  Yes, everyone makes mistakes.  But what shocked me was that the police weren't in uniform, they didn't let David know who they were or why they were attacking him.  They even filmed footage of the violence.  

What I don't understand is why they were attacking him at all, and with such brutality?  Whatever happened to handcuffs and the "right to remain silent?"  If this is the new approach the police are taking on, even without thorough research, then yes, why should we trust them?

Adam illustrates how police can make a judgement: "They hear my accent, they see what I'm wearing... some of the time I've got a hoodie on and I think they think, 'criminal.'"

An occurring theme throughout the programme involved Adam standing in a dark room, wearing dark clothing, sharing his views and opinions on the police.  The darkness that surrounded him heightened the terror within his stories of the police and how they treat his friends and people who share his image.  It caused us to focus only on his words - a powerful effect.

"1 in 3 people think the police are corrupt, 1 in every 5 think they are dishonest."

But not all police are violent.  One firearms officer says, "I hope I go through my firearms career without having to draw my weapon."  Another policeman that Adam visited was PC Lang in Fife. Most of the cases he had to deal with involved wildlife. 

The excitement demonstrated at the beginning of the documentary barely made an appearance, and, overall, the programme didn't answer the question posed in the title at all.  Adam's closing words are, "As to whether I trust the police... I'm not sure. Personally, I think we'll always be asking if we can trust the police."

The obvious avoidance of the question highlights how controversial a topic this is - an answer cannot be formulated, no matter how much information is gathered.  This kind of cliffhanger builds suspense, but do we really want suspense within a topic like this - a topic that could affect our own safety?

Either way, it allows us, as viewers, to form our own opinions.

My opinion? No, we can't - not fully.  But I think one day, we could.

Image from www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kbymz