My police radio burst into life. The control room at the station was chasing me for the result of a call that I’d been sent to. ‘Both parties seen, advice given, no further action’, was my succinct answer.
When I say, ‘advice’, I have to admit that my language was more akin to threats, but the two neighbouring couples that I had spoken to separately as well as together, had all been left in no doubt that if they couldn’t find a way to live side-by-side amicably, then the next time the peace was breached, then they would all be guests in the cells at Peckham Police Station, which might just afford them the time required to reflect upon their actions, and consider their futures.
I also pointed out that I would be notifying the local Beat Bobby of my visit to their homes, and that a trip in the back of our van to Tower Bridge Magistrates Court would also remain a possibility for any or all of them, should their behaviour hoover up any more valuable police time.
These neighbours didn’t kiss and make up in my presence, but the tension had certainly been diffused.
Steve, who worked for the council, was always going to hate reggae, and Delroy, who told me he was looking for work, wasn’t about to enjoy Deep Purple anytime soon.
However, they both promised me that they would enjoy their music at a reasonable volume level in the future, so I left their council estate hopeful that they and their partners might not be calling us again.
Think scrapping non-crime hate incidents will stop woke policing? Think again - Peter Bleksley | Getty Images
A modern-day senior police officer might pick numerous holes in my policing methods of yesteryear.
If I’d bought the tactics of the 1980s into today, an Inspector may castigate me for not investigating Steve’s dislike of reggae further. Was it borne out of inherent racism?
Did Steve own a pair of cherry-red Doc Martens boots? Did he support the local football team, Millwall FC? Did Steve possess any Brexity books, and had I recorded this matter as a Non-Crime Hate Incident?
The police have got themselves in a dreadful mess over the recording of Non-Crime Hate Incidents in recent years, and they only have themselves and the appalling College of Policing to blame.
Officers have repeatedly indulged in authoritarian overreach, as they have detained journalists, writers, and members of the public, who have said or written things that the plod didn’t like.
Poorly trained and badly supervised officers have searched high and low in an effort to find a crime that fitted the pathetic outrage that they felt, only to discover that no such offence was on the statute book.
The police have had to pay for their Stasi-like behaviour. Out-of-court settlements have been reached, with large sums of money being paid out to those who have been so severely wronged by being arrested, detained for hours, having their homes turned upside down, and their reputations shredded.
Finally, and not before time, this week, Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, also known as Lord Herbert, the chair of The College of Policing, announced to The Telegraph: "Non-Crime Hate Incidents will go as a concept. That system will be scrapped and replaced with a completely different system.
"There will be no recording of anything like it on crime databases. Instead, only the most serious category of what will be treated as anti-social behaviour will be recorded. It’s a sea change."
This news is welcome, and the proposals will most likely be rubber-stamped by the Home Secretary, but it would be remiss of me not to issue a few words of caution.
Frontline officers are to be issued with a ‘common sense’ checklist that will guide them on what action to take, but more, much more than a checklist is required to reshape our police into the service that the public wants and deserves.
Successive generations of senior police officers have attended universities that were captured by left-wing ideology a very long time ago.
Plenty of that has rubbed off, and policing clowns have been churned out by the circus-load.
They are public servants by title only, for their detachment from the thoughts, fears, concerns and needs of the man and woman on the street, and from their own frontline officers, has become a gulf wider than any ocean.
Most current police chiefs have an opinion of themselves that is higher than any mountain. Consequently, only the thoughts and views of themselves and their academic chums matter.
That is why so much that is utterly unacceptable to the majority of people is allowed to happen on our streets. It’ll take a lot more than a checklist to bring British policing back into line.
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