POLICING THE RAINBOW David Webb, King Lion Publishing, 2004. Hardback, 244 pages plus illustrations. £14.95 ISBN 09545215-9-5 www.freemason.com

'Everybody knows, even the criminal, the difference between right and wrong, between the benefits of a peaceful community, and what you lose when the peace breaks down.' David Webb, retired Police Superintendent, a hero to some, maligned by others, thus sums up his inspiring philosophy towards policing a multi-racial society. He became Superintendent in the racially-torn area of Handsworth, Birmingham in 1977. 'Community Policing' has become a sound-bite, and may be applied like a sticking-plaster to the tactics of any police chief who thinks it will improve his image. But David Webb's community policing was a very carefully-crafted tool. It involved befriending, working, playing, drinking, sometimes fighting with those whom he and his force policed. 'We must start,' he says, 'from the point that we are all members of the same species, have natural instincts that reject those who are different. We must then devise skills and techniques to overcome those fears.' Probably his consummate skill was listening, although he is too modest to say so.
    Seeing our opponent as something other than an opponent is the first step, the disengagement necessary for other tumblers in the lock to fall into place so that we may gently prise open the door. But in pursuing such a strategy, two things happened. The various racial groups in Handsworth stopped seeing the police as 'aliens in our community', but those in the police force who were jealous of his success, or could not copy it themselves, accused him of 'soft policing', leading eventually to the resignation of this remarkable man who, through his tolerance and understanding, had achieved worldwide acclaim. 'A prophet without honour in his own country', you might say. In Freemasonry, he was a founder member of the Lodge of Universal Brotherhood No. 9329 'comprising men of all races, religions and nationalities'. In the end, it was in 'the poverty-racked streets of the rainbow people of Handsworth that my true understanding of humanity began.' We need more people like David Webb.
    Julian Rees