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Licence to extract cash
• IN his excellent opinion piece on the postal strike, Tony Benn highlights the contradiction embedded in the desperate lengths to which the authorities will go to make everything – including public services – turn a profit (Behind the strikes, a big issue: must everything turn a profit, October 19).
He asks rhetorically (and sarcastically): “What about establishing low-cost private police forces to challenge the ‘police monopoly’?”
Unfortunately, in one area of law enforcement this has already happened.
Thirty years ago parking enforcement was the responsibility of the police until they decided it was too time- consuming and the traffic warden was invented.
Traffic wardens were directly employed by local authorities and issued tickets to motorists who parked illegally. They did not have “targets” and were not expected to make a profit.
In due course parking enforcement was privatised and the companies awarded these contracts were actively encouraged to extort as much money as possible from the public – a challenge they embraced with glee.
So what was once part of law enforcement inexorably became part of the corporate maw with a licence to extract money from the public more or less at will.
Furthermore, when they indemnified themselves and their new friends against the consequences of their activities, the authorities made sure they are not only part of the law but also above it.
If this is legal – or they simply get away with it – I wonder what other juicy areas of law enforcement they will be drooling over next?
Martin Kennedy
Brewer Street, W1
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