I can't remember how I first came on these, but they remain cogent, although increasingly ignored. It seems to me that politicians and rather disturbingly the police, are both more and more seeing the police force as an army of occupation.
Sir
Robert Peel's Nine Principles:
Principle
#1: The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and
disorder.
Principle
#2: The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the
public approval of police actions.
Principle
#3: Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary
observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the
public.
Principle
#4: The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes
proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
Principle
#5: Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion,
but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
Principle
#6: Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of
the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and
warning is found to be insufficient.
Principle
#7: Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that
gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the
public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid
to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in
the interests of community welfare and existence."
Principle #8: Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
Principle #9: The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
