This month we were lucky enough to host Skeptics In The Pub veteran Stevyn Colgan as he gave his 'Skeptical Bobby' talk for the 50th time. Stevyn took us on a journey from his school days of confrontation with Mr Tuttle over a picture of a Brontosaurus that was clearly a Brachiosaurus, to his service in the Metropolitan Police's 'Problem Solving Unit' and, latterly, his time at BBC TV's 'Q.I' and it's Radio 4 sister show 'The Museum Of Curiosity.'
The bulk of the talk concentrated on how prevention of a problem is far better than a cure. Stevyn spoke of his frustration as a Police Cadet that the emphasis in training was on how to catch criminals and process them through the justice system. This seemed odd as the first of the 'Peelian Principles' upon which the police force was set up states;
'The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.'
However, it seems far easier for the police to measure (and politicians and public alike to understand) arrests and convictions rather than the more difficult task of ascertaining the efficacy of crime prevention. Arrest and convictions statistics might look good but they do not prove that the police force is doing an effective job. Indeed, another of the 'Peelian Principles' makes this clear;'The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder; not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.'
Still, Stevyn was unbowed by the line taken by his colleagues and was determined to adopt a curative approach. An approach no doubt helped by the fact that he did not fear being sacked as he'd only joined the police force as a drunken £50 bet with his father - also a policeman.
Stevyn took great inspiration from the work of Herman Goldstein and his idea of 'Problem Oriented Policing.'
Various issues tackled by Stevyn and his team included;
- Hiring a young Italian magician dressed as Harry Potter to alert unsuspecting shoppers to a card trick scam.
- Diagonal hoarding to prevent fly-posting (and if that didn't work sticking 'Cancelled' notices on top of the fly-posters.)
- Gum targets to cut down on chewing gum on pavements.
- Lollipops for departing clubbers to keep late night noise down.
- See through shop shutters to deter graffiti and also deterring burglars who would normally be shielded from view by normal shutters.
- Organising a Dog Show on a tough inner city estate to get little old ladies with the Yorkshire Terriers and youths with their Pit Bulls taking to each other an promoting community cohesion.
The central thread throughout the evening was that things are better if people talk and listen to each other, work as a community and seek to find what they have in common to solve their problems. The solutions needed are often not grand initiatives but thoughtful, localised smaller scale actions.
NEXT MONTH: Simon Clare joins us to explain what taking The Alpha Course as an Atheist taught him about organised religion and what non-believers can learn from it. Thursday 20th February - 7pm - The White Horse - Full details HERE.
