04 November 2005
Senior police officers this week hit out at criticisms from a Right-wing think-tank over the calibre of new recruits to the force.
In a report published this week, Politeia said police recruitment was pitched at too low a level, with no formal educational qualifications required. There was also criticism of poor training and an employment structure that failed to encourage police officers to reach their potential.
But Surrey Police chief constable Bob Quick, who is responsible for workforce modernisation issues at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: 'Acpo rejects the sweeping criticism of police recruits, which will be offensive to many dedicated, hard-working and professional police officers. The overall standard has increased and the proportion of graduates entering the service is at 25%.'
Quick added that Politeia's recommendations were 'behind the times', because Acpo had already identified the problems and was working to improve them.
Agreeing that the police's employment structure needed significant reform, he said: '[Acpo] has proposed a blueprint to the government which includes introducing the fast-tracking of the most capable recruits through the service to key service delivery roles and to senior positions.'
But there was comfort for the police service elsewhere, with the publication on October 27 of annual performance assessments, which ministers claimed proved that forces across England and Wales were reducing crime and bringing more offenders to justice.
Home Office minister Hazel Blears said the picture of police performance presented by the data was 'very encouraging'.
She said: 'Over the past three years we have seen real and sustainable improvements in police performance.'
But public services commentator Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, criticised the assessment as difficult for members of the public to make sense of.
He told Public Finance: 'They are very much less specific and less easy to understand than, say, the Comprehensive Performance Assessment for local authorities, star ratings for hospital trusts and, most strikingly, league tables for schools.'
He added: 'It begs the question why the police should be treated with such incredible caution compared with schools, councils and hospitals. My guess would be that the police and the Home Office have been a good deal more effective than other public services in fighting off the forces of accountability.'
PFnov2005
