Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

As forces have once more been told to prioritise their workload Gary Mason reviews the lessons of policing during the lockdown.
 

Date - 3rd July 2020
By - Gary Mason

Tom Winsor set the cat among the pigeons yesterday when the mainstream media headlines on his annual State of Policing report focused on the assertion that the public may have to consider paying more for forces to investigate volume crimes such as burglary due to very low current detection rates.

Cue many an old sergeant turning in their graves at the demise of something that used to be regarded as bread and butter police work.

The report’s broader message on the need for forces to prioritise and restructure to meet demand comes at a very interesting time.

The lockdown has given police forces room to breath and to concentrate on some core work with spectacularly good results.

CC Andy Cooke from Merseyside, who leads nationally on crime, recently commented on the lockdown policing dividend: “We’ve been able to do some real policing that’s made a difference”.

This was achievable because his officers were freed up from being “stuck on the phone” he added.

Anecdotes coming in to the Police Oracle office paint a similar picture with officers arriving at work with a fresh spring in their step having spent the previous shift picking off drug dealers like fish in a barrel.

Against the growing murmurings that police are being turned into quasi-social workers some have used the let-up in the relentless merry-go-round from one call out to another to get back to doing what they joined up for and make some meaningful arrests.

Even some of the more mundane stuff is getting done such as better ICT and joined up working with other agencies. We reported this week on a CPS review of lockdown performance which showed that the number of forces who can upload digital evidence without having to send computer discs across town in police vehicles had almost doubled in just 10 weeks.

Which is some more very good news. Further up the policing eco-chain a major blow has been landed against organised crime groups after the National Crime Agency infiltrated the encrypted phone network estimated to be used by 10,000 OCG members in the UK.

The agency and the forces around the country who took part in the operation on the back of NCA intelligence about offenders in their area are running out of fingers to count the seized bank notes.

The queue of cases going to Crown Court is getting longer by the day.

The operation is a prime example of what can be achieved when law enforcement at national, regional and local level using the best technology and intelligence that money can buy, work  together to clearly defined targets.

Yet since March 23 we have been living in extraordinary times and when the pubs re-open tomorrow forces may be given a sharp reminder of what a return to normal service looks like.

There are still some major problems with the structure and systems of policing in England and Wales that three months of respite will not wash away.

Once things get back to normal the competing demands faced by every force in the country will start to bite again.

Despite the promised uplift there are not enough officers to investigate every burglary, action every intelligence report, deal with every missing person and safeguard every vulnerable person that crosses their path.

As at the end of March 2019, there were 20,564 fewer police officers and 15,185 fewer police staff than there were at the same point in 2010. In terms of the total police workforce, this was 17 percent below 2010 levels.

If forces are to do all of the above and more besides there is some resetting of the performance dial required. On volume crime a greater emphasis on crime prevention in all its forms is needed in order to make the numbers more sustainable. Proper weighting of the harm value of burglary, street robbery, all forms of assault and hate crime, to name just a few, needs to be carried out.

Officers will have different views about what constitutes ‘real police work’ but none of them really want to be in a situation where they are arresting the same individual or returning to the same address or location time after time because the criminal justice outcome is poor or has little real consequence.

The Government has promised a Royal Commission on criminal justice with a comparatively short reporting remit. Perhaps that will produce some workable reforms otherwise we may end up looking back on the spring and early summer of 2020 as a statistical blip.

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[Ether + 1,391]

Some easy answers here, when the pubs are closed the demand for police and ambulance reduces drastically. This shows how much time and money is wasted policing and treating people under the influence. 
 

Answer massively fine those that cause disorder and damage or need treatment through intoxication. Put that money back into policing and the NHS

[Zulu 22 + 4,569]

Has Sir Tom Winsor not done enough harm to Policing. It was he who was behind the decimation of Police Forces under Mrs May.  The Roman Legions had a punishment of "Decimation" it was punishing 10% of a Legion, that is exactly what Winsor did for Policing.  Of course the real slap in the face for Police was that Tom Winsor got rewarded for failure with a Knighthood and being appointed CHMI with no kin experience. Why does he not tell the public that he is the person responsible for the Police being unable to investigate Burglary and other serious offences properly.  It is not the fault of the officer on the ground, at the coalface but comes from the Politicians and, that includes PCC's and Senior Officers who have been playing Politics now for many years.  The problem now is fast approaching where the present day officer is losing the art of "Street Craft" and Crime solving, and that is not necessarily their fault.

If they had a National Award for complete under achieving then Sir Tom Winsor would win by a mile.

[Radman + 2,163]

I think there is an uncomfortable truth we should really face as police between the fairly large disconnect between what the public and our communities expect from policing to what it is we actually deliver. 

How many people here can honestly say policing is what they expected it to be when they first joined? Hand up it is totally different than expected, policing now is a quasi social worker role with very little proactive or bog standard police work being done and by that I mean going after local Criminality. 

Alot of safeguarding, alot of mental health intervention, alot of domestics being seen to, all very important work sure but actual boots on the ground traditional police work? Not so much. I put the blame squarely at the feet of Central government who control HO forces instead of having local communities have a real say on how forces are operated (it is after all local tax paying for these services) the invention of PCCs is nothing more than a figurehead, with no say on operational policing at all, that still remains with Central Government. 

The more I think about it the more I'd Champion for a two tiered system seen the world over, have local town halls, mayors etc appoint cops to deal with local issues and have the current county forces deal with larger crime and disorder, alongside all the safeguarding guff aswell. 

[SimonT + 1,185]

We haven't had to look for any mental health patients during the lock down, section 2 and 3 from secure hospital, because they weren't let out. It was pretty great. It's over now. 

But we have an opportunity. 99% of the time we find and rerurn the missing persons. Technically in breach of the codes of practice. It should be the hospital that does this. But they never will, because we do. 

We couldn't take 136 patients to emergency rooms during lock down, had to divert to actual mental health hospital. Long may that continue. 

We filed a lot of things that were not our business or so minor that they weren't police matters. 

We have a vast amount of work to do, pushing things back to others agencies that should be doing things. But there doesn't seem to be any drive at the moment. I'm not aware of any "plan" in my force, no one in charge saying we will do X or y. We seem to be just existing and doing. Much the same as before the pandemic 

[Radman + 2,163]

35 minutes ago, SimonT said:

We haven't had to look for any mental health patients during the lock down, section 2 and 3 from secure hospital, because they weren't let out. It was pretty great. It's over now. 

But we have an opportunity. 99% of the time we find and rerurn the missing persons. Technically in breach of the codes of practice. It should be the hospital that does this. But they never will, because we do. 

We couldn't take 136 patients to emergency rooms during lock down, had to divert to actual mental health hospital. Long may that continue. 

We filed a lot of things that were not our business or so minor that they weren't police matters. 

We have a vast amount of work to do, pushing things back to others agencies that should be doing things. But there doesn't seem to be any drive at the moment. I'm not aware of any "plan" in my force, no one in charge saying we will do X or y. We seem to be just existing and doing. Much the same as before the pandemic 

One of our biggest follies in modern policing was the widespread adoption of the phrase "Duty of Care" and I have no idea who pioneered it or when it became part of mainstream policing but it was a well entrenched mindset when I became a cop in 2009... So much so it was uttered religiously at almost any and all circumstances where some perceived vulnerability was an issue. Our leadership at the time were all to happy to turn cops into mental health nurses and off the clock social workers, whilst at the same time disempowering agencies and organisations of their duties as there was a mindset of "We're the police, this is for us to handle." Ultimately more and more responsibility to the job profile was added which in hindsight had no right being added and to this day still doesn't... Its crippled the service. 

The change in mindset ultimately resulted in other essential and responsibile agencies, the likes of social services, NHS, local authorities etc ceasing to function properly or becoming over relient on the police, some stopped providing round the clock services and closed up at 5pm, in reality handing over their primary duties and responsibilities to the police. 

To put it bluntly this never should have been allowed to happen and when it did our leadership at the top should have fought harder to have it changed far sooner than they have done.

We've seen some success, I personally quite like the new MH legislation as it puts alot back onto the NHS and rightly so, is it perfect? No. 

[Zulu 22 + 4,569]

I  agree with your post almost in its entirety but you did say Quote "To put it bluntly this never should have been allowed to happen and when it did our leadership at the top should have fought harder to have it changed far sooner than they have done." 

What friggin Leadership.

[Radman + 2,163]

25 minutes ago, Zulu 22 said:

I  agree with your post almost in its entirety but you did say Quote "To put it bluntly this never should have been allowed to happen and when it did our leadership at the top should have fought harder to have it changed far sooner than they have done." 

What friggin Leadership.

Exactly. 

Cops on the ground can only do so much but in my view atleast policing has fractured away from what both the public and tradition deem to be 'police work' and more towards an emphasis on quasi social work role with also I'd argue an larger element of social engineering... That is now the reality of modern policing. 

This is why the public become so incensed when they see open law breaking in their towns and cities, it annoys me and I'm a cop but little is seemingly being done to put a stop to it because cops are far too busy dealing with other things.