By Vivienne Russell
30 June 2010
A target to boost public confidence in policing has been scrapped along with pledges governing police activity, Home Secretary Theresa May announced yesterday.
The confidence target, introduced by Labour home secretary
Jacqui Smith last year, requires police forces in England and Wales to improve
public confidence in policing by 12% by 2012.
The national policing pledge is a ten-point breakdown of what communities can expect from their police forces, ranging from 999 response times to holding regular public meetings to listen to communities’ concerns. Both have gone with immediate effect.
Addressing a conference co-hosted by the Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers on June 29, May said: ‘Targets don’t fight crime; targets hinder the fight against crime. In scrapping the confidence target and the policing pledge I couldn’t be any clearer about your [senior police officers] mission; it isn’t a 30-point plan; it is to cut crime.’
The home secretary also said she was considering what police functions should be provided nationally.
‘Does it really make sense to buy in police cars, uniforms and IT systems in 43 different ways?’ she said.
May added that she welcomed Acpo’s offer to produce a national plan for the way the service does business. It should look at whether other functions, such as call handling and training, could be provided more cheaply by sharing with other forces or partners.
‘We need to understand too the potential benefits of outsourcing,’ she said.
May reaffirmed her commitment to honour the existing pay deal for police officers and other police staff. But she stressed there was a need to be realistic about what could be afforded and that police officers and staff would have to make sacrifices and accept pay restraint.
‘It cannot be right, for example, that police overtime has become institutionalised. We may not win popularity contests for asking these difficult questions, but it is time for them to be asked.’
