Here is Hugh Broom of the NFU's response to Surrey Police stopping a lose cow by ramming it with a vehicle.
This is why I believe he is in part wrong.
The cow had been lose for some time and travelled some distance. Yes there was a risk to the public. However, the action taken cannot be justified by the risk, because it was totally inappropriate and risked increasing the problem.
Quite simply, hitting an animal with a vehicle was likely to cause it injury or pain that would make it harder to handle and even more unpredictable.
I am outraged and believe two people were responsible for that decision and deserve censure - the police officer driving the vehicle and the Chief Constable of Surrey Police.
The use of the vehicle to ram the cow was stupid and possibly a decision created by ignorance, pressure and fear of injury to the public.
The reason this happened and the officer was under such pressure is a management failing and the buck stops with the Chief Constable of Surrey Police.
The reason I say this is that the Police operations centre should have a large list of contacts of people they can contact to help with all sorts of circumstances. Indeed, twice I have visited Lincolnshire's centre the small group we were with was asked to suggest any gaps in civilian assistance that could be. Indeed the knowledge of individual officers in Lincolnshire Police can often procure help.
Surrey must have a similar system. After all it agreed that its officers would visit each NFU member farmer on its patch and made great play of this in press release in March. However, perhaps in this pledge it should have considered the rural community relies upon so much more than NFU members!
The headline on BBC read:
"Surrey Police have pledged to visit every National Farmer's Union member to help them address concerns about crime. "
So much for "without favour".
So we end up with a police officer in an awful position, clearly ill-informed or ignorant, that he sees ramming a young cow with a vehicle as their only option. For him to be in this position in the first place shows profound lack of leadership.
What it also shows is a lack of local knowledge and ability to tap into people that can help this is a fundamental relationship with the public failure.
Finally, were firearms an option? Having spoken to two retired officers they considered it as a last resort possible and night-time and urban setting whilst problematic would not exclude that choice as a last resort. Indeed, one of them had the unfortunate task of shooting a bullock that had escaped an abattoir. But one of them pointed out to me that it is unlikely a modern commanding officer would make that choice for public opinion and social media shaming are too big a barrier.
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