It is easy to see how the idea of free policing (well, only a cup of coffee) appeals to Waitrose. A few pairs of boots patrolling frozen fish should stop some of the indiscriminate theft and violence which has apparently grown in supermarkets.
But long term it is not the answer. Nor, for that matter, in the short term either. Tesco will soon offer coffee and a sandwich. M&S, not to be outdone, coffee, a sandwich and a jam tart; the Co-op, all the above and a takeaway supper. And so poor Waitrose will find itself outbid. The fish fingers will start to disappear in the hands of the light-fingered again.
But that is not the real problem. It is the inevitable rise of corruption among the police that will follow. Where do you think corruption is born and bred? It is at the lowest levels.
It is implicit that the free coffee will put the officer on the side of the supplier if there is trouble. A 1970s survey showed that most police forces thought a free cup of coffee was perfectly acceptable.
However, the US sociologist E R Stoddard thought this was the lowest rung of the ladder of corruption, with the next step gaining free admission and obtaining price discounts; favouritism, that is overlooking traffic offences and treating minority groups with less impartiality, followed.
The rung after that was ‘shopping’ or taking small items from unlocked stores while doing their rounds. Then extortion – tickets to be bought for police boxing tournaments, taking out ads in the programmes, which could wipe out small offences. And then onto bribery - payments or ‘gifts’ for help in avoiding future prosecutions; ‘shakedowns’, appropriating large or valuable items when investigating burglaries; ‘perjury’ – helping with alibis, not opposing bail, omitting previous convictions; and then on to major crime.
The other problem is that, once bribes have been taken, or, say, money found on a dead body shared, the officer is vulnerable for the rest of his or her career. The officer becomes ‘one of ours’ and is unable to stop colleagues.
The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Free coffee is one step along it.
James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor
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