Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill
12:00 pm
Michael Crockart (Edinburgh West, Liberal Democrat)
I want to echo the point that you have just made. Having policed public order situations in a previous occupation, I know that it is difficult enough as a police officer to get a lawful order given by a uniform to be accepted and acted upon, especially in stressful situations. You tend to find that different types of people will accept it, and others will say, “Who do you think you are?” and, “Don’t you know who I am?” We are potentially exacerbating that situation by asking those same people to accept that same type of, albeit lawful, order from a non-uniformed person, and we could make the situation worse.