Karma police, private cops, and the city centre

In Bristol’s city centre, the businesses have been paying Avon and Somerset Police for access to their own police officers.

PCSO Nathaniel Naylor joined the City Centre Neighbourhood Team with over 5 years of experience in the industry. He is employed by Avon & Somerset Constabulary and funded solely by Bristol City Centre BID.

“Nat works with our levy-paying businesses to reach improved outcomes in all aspects of crime and anti-social behaviour." Nat responds to direct requests from businesses, in response to reports received by the police, or to help advise them.

Then there’s Lewis Monk who since February 2022, has been part of an existing team of Streetwise officers at Bristol City Council and Avon and Somerset Police as an additional resource focusing solely on the City Centre BID area.

Private policing is not new in England and certainly not in Bristol.

Back in 2020, Fred Broughton, chair of the Police Federation, was unimpressed: "The principle of private individuals and businesses paying for policing is fundamentally wrong. Law enforcement should be available to all." Back then, it wasn’t just paying for officers that was the problem.

In Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain (2000), George Monbiot wrote about the corporate sponsorship of Avon and Somerset Police by Threshers. Whoever I tell this to simply doesn’t believe it. You’re not allowed to sponsor or give money to the police, they tell me.

And yet, it’s true.

Twenty-two years ago, police forces were allowed to raise 1% of their budget through sponsorship, according to Points West. “That would mean £1 million for Dorset and Wiltshire and £3 million for Avon and Somerset force" (see YouTube video below).

The topic of sponsoring or paying the police was also covered rather well by Squall magazine:

"In the early 1990s one of Britain's first forays into private policing collapsed farcically. Residents had agreed to pay Andrew Burke and his firm, SAS, to patrol the leafy streets of Bristol's affluent Sneyd Park estate.

Embarrassment followed when Burke began distributing photographs of local youths he'd personally decided were up to no good. Not long after, Burke was arrested for assaulting a young man in the line of his duty and the experiment ended.

Sponsorship of police cars followed (in 2000). 'Threshers say don't drink and drive' was the slogan adopted by Avon and Somerset police on their squad cars before the insurance company, Hill House Hammond took over logo-residency on the force's car doors.”

“Sponsorship then extended to websites, helicopters and eventually beat officers.

“Never reluctant to put themselves about, Avon and Somerset were the first force to accept sponsorship for a constable (from radar company, Racal) & have recently taken an undisclosed amount of money from Barclaycard to pay for a specialist officer working on credit card crime.”

The money didn’t just go to the police from sponsorship.

Retailers in Broadmead were “trying to club together £90,000 for three dedicated police constables. Making sure everyone understands the role of the shop-cops, centre manager John Hirst said: ‘I'm not prepared to have begging in my centre. People will have to do it somewhere else.’”

Hirst is retired now but he went on to become chief executive of Destination Bristol, which is the organisation behind the business improvement districts in the city centre and other areas.

I wonder in what ways the BID-funded police are helping business deal with "crime and anti-social behaviour" and what this behaviour entails.