The Rise of Non-consensual Policing in the United Kingdom

This chapter discusses the contentious rise of non-consensual policing in the UK due to the harsh social and financial effects of politically imposed and its unintended effect of eroding the faith and trust of the British public in the police service. The social and financial effects include the 2008 global financial crash which led to the so-called age of austerity, ‘Brexit’, the ruinous COVID-19 pandemic which all contributed to annual cuts to the policing and criminal justice budget as well as the closure of police stations, the loss of officers and the deskilling of the police role. We argue that the hallowed British model of policing, ‘policing by consent,’ is in grave danger of being altered irrevocably. ‘Consensuality’ (public consent) is enshrined in the creation of modern, democratic policing which evolved from the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel. This formed the basis of the professionalisation of modern policing as we know it and became the gold standard for policing in the UK. Using anecdotal evidence from our own experiences and observations, we lay out the main argument using two in-depth case studies: (1) the death of consent in England and Wales and (2) the rise of non-consensual policing in Scotland. We justify using anecdotal evidence because the issues are so contemporary that they have not been properly aired or interrogated thoroughly in academic policing journals. We argue that the death of policing by consent is not inevitable but that the government, politicians and policymakers must take immediate action to end the rise of non-consensual policing in the UK before it is too late.