What the Met have actually said if you read the article is that they won’t distribute it until further consideration, including consultation re other faiths has been carried out.

Personally I think that there are questions that need to be thought about here including:

- How are these comics to be distributed? By public servants on-the-clock? Is that acceptable? Is that what we employ the police to do whilst on duty?

- How are they presented? Are they opt in eg left somewhere that if an young offender is interested they can pick one up, or more actively ‘pushed’ onto a potentially very vulnerable young person by an ‘authority’ figure (the power dynamic needs to be considered I’d suggest).

- What precedent does it set? If the Met distribute these comics, will they be oblidged to do likewise for any other faith group? Would we feel so comfortable about extreme fundamentalist material from any faith being distributed this way, or say something from a more cultish group?

Sounds to me like the Met are saying, stuff like this needs to be thought about upfront, which appears the PCA haven’t done. Is it possible that actually they’ve rather naively jumped the gun and are now crying “oooh it’s PC gone mad!”?

I do agree that “other people” should be able to distribute their messages in prisons — that is, if they want to.

As for adopting a cop, what a great idea. I would adore having a bright young recruit dropping in after work, calling me ma’am, and enjoying a nice glass of water with me … er, what do you mean, it doesn’t work that way?