Listen in to this podcast (at about the 4 minute mark) to hear the Police Commissioner tell Mary Wilson he runs a business.

Arguments about speed cameras aside, it is of course nonsense. Whatever the Commissioner may think about his role and the job he has to do, he is not a businessman and the police force is not a business. If it were, the Government would probably have made moves to sell shares in it to overseas investors*.

Don’t believe me? Next time you get pulled over by a cop just try giving the guy some cash. He won’t take it!**

* I acknowledge that the Dotcom case might lead some to erroneously believe this has already happened.
** Just to be clear, I haven’t actually tried bribing a policeman in this country. It is merely a hypothesis.