IT is clear from the reaction to last week’s story about flags that many people see the the PSNI as a sort of NHS for crime – a service that is at least aiming to treat all ills, even if it fails or makes people wait for years.

Politicians and commentators who ought to know better discussed the PSNI’s new policy on flags as if 6,000 officers can attend 300,000 lampposts.

That is not how policing works, nor can it be, unless you want to give it an NHS-sized budget.

The PSNI has to ration and prioritise its resources to an extent that makes it more like a single ambulance than a network of hospitals.

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It turns up here and there, as much for reassurance as to meet demand.

Public confusion on this is understandable when the rationing is scarcely admitted, let alone explained.

The PSNI encourages the perception that it aims to tackle all crime, all the time.

In reality, only about 40% of crime is even reported to the police, according to Stormont’s official crime survey, mainly because victims think nothing will be done about it.

Of the 40% that is reported, less than a third results in a sanction, such as a charge, summons or caution.

While that does not mean the other two-thirds are not investigated, in practice it means the PSNI ‘solves’ about one crime in eight as most people would understand it.

That is a good performance by UK and international policing standards but it would get a team of surgeons struck off for life.

These figures exclude most motoring offences, most anti-social behaviour and all non-crime incidents recorded by the police, which include many instances of sectarianism.

Motoring offences and anti-social behaviour alone generate more recorded incidents than all other crime put together, which gives some idea of the vastness of the challenge.

The true nature of policing is best seen in what the PSNI calls ‘intensification operations’ and headline-writers call ‘a crackdown’.

The annual Christmas crackdown on drink-driving is the best-known example but there are other regular, occasional and one-off operations that target particular forms of crime for brief period, sometimes just a few weeks.

Recent examples include operations against fraud, retail theft and predatory behaviour in nightlife areas.

Comparing this to NHS waiting list initiatives shows how policing and healthcare are radically different tasks.

A ‘crackdown’ on cataracts does not reduce the incidence of cataracts – they keep occurring at the same rate as always. The health service is just running to keep up.

Most crime is committed by a handful of persistent offenders. Get a few of them off the streets and offending will fall dramatically, often for some time afterwards and across a wide area.

This does not just apply to the crime being targeted, as persistent offenders rarely restrict themselves to one type of offence, nor does it necessarily require custody.

One of the PSNI’s first operations, in 2002, was impounding uninsured cars in inner Belfast. This caused a significant drop in theft across the Belfast region.

Operations-based policing is so effective that forces in Britain have begun promoting it as the mainstay of their work, a strategy known as ‘influence policing’.

In London, Manchester and other major cities, operations with catchy titles such as Valiant and Payback target robberies, knife-crime and seizure of criminal assets.

Other forces are expanding this into a general approach. Thames Valley constantly monitors violent crime for targeted operations.

Dyfed-Powys Police, covering mid-Wales, has Operation Elevate, a new strategy encouraged by the Home Office, where each operation builds on the last to reclaim high-crime areas.

Influence policing might seem ideal for the PSNI, given its shortage of officers and money, yet it is heading in the opposite direction.

Operations are considered an extra to routine spending so they have been cut back as budgets tighten.

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The only exceptions are joint operations with the National Crime Agency and other partners who share the cost. Recent examples have targeted smuggling, counterfeit goods and child exploitation.

Would the public and political leaders here accept more operations-based policing if it meant less ‘day-to-day’ policing?

Most domestic burglaries in Northern Ireland must be committed by a few dozen people.

Imagine a senior police officer telling the Policing Board words to the effect of: “We’ll get burglary down to almost zero for several years, but we have to stop pretending we can do everything all at once.”

It should at least be possible to have that conversation.

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