It is almost a hundred years since Charles Penrose wrote the popular music hall number, The Laughing Policeman – “He’s too kind for a policeman/ He’s never known to frown/And all the people say he is the happiest man in town” – but maybe it’s time for a new version called The Dancing Policeman.
Six officers from North Wales police demonstrated their Zumba skills in the Big Bang Bounce at Prestatyn Carnival last weekend. They had asked a local dance and fitness instructor at the festival to coach them for a brief routine and duly performed it for the festival-goers. Inevitably, a video of their performance emerged and – equally inevitably – came the baleful tweets: “fantastic, they won’t come round if your house is burgled, but can behave like prats,” said one. “No wonder police have lost confidence of public.” And another: “No wonder you can never get a cop when you want one. They’re poncing about at carnivals.”
Their local force stood up for them. “The officers, many of whom were specials and who were at the event anyway, took just a few minutes out of the day to join in the carnival fun with the community they serve,” said a spokesperson.
It’s not the first time police officers have been lambasted for larking about on duty – a few years ago, for instance, two uniformed Thames Valley officers were criticised after footage emerged of them pushing each other around in a shopping trolley late at night in Newbury.
So should we encourage such silly behaviour in this hot summer? Former detective Graham Satchwell, who wrote the entertaining memoir An Inspector Recalls - in which he records how one of his colleague’s specialties when chasing villains was shouting “stop or I’ll let the dog loose!” followed by a very realistic Alsatian bark - defended the dancers. “If it’s something spontaneous like that, it’s absolutely fine. I think it’s a bit different when you see all those pictures of the police dancing at Notting Hill carnival that appear every year and you think, oh no, not again.”
Still, while the police in France are in the news for beating up demonstrators, the people of North Wales may prefer that their officers were attracting attention for putting their left leg in – provided, of course, that they remember to take their left leg out when duty calls.
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