A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
a degree and quite often a degree in journalism (an<br />
idea unheard of 25 years ago).<br />
For those on the receiving end change rarely<br />
seems good. It is more often threatening and<br />
perplexing. But I only have to look at what has<br />
emerged at the Leveson inquiry – <strong>for</strong> all its show<br />
trial trappings – to see how an outsider can shine a<br />
light on bad practice. The same will be true in<br />
policing. As an outsider, I am frequently struck by<br />
some of the things in policing that have proved<br />
most resistant to change:<br />
• The social and ethnic make-up of the<br />
Metropolitan <strong>Police</strong> never ceases to amaze. I<br />
have no politically correct axe to grind here,<br />
but it seems self-defeating to me that London<br />
is policed in the main by men and women who<br />
do not live in the city and do not reflect its<br />
make-up.<br />
• The fact that so few women and even fewer<br />
officers from ethnic minority backgrounds<br />
reach senior rank is surely of concern. Indeed<br />
the refusal to allow direct entry from other<br />
walks of life means that the service’s leadership<br />
is introspective, self-obsessed and poorly<br />
skilled in dealing with the world beyond<br />
policing.<br />
• To incentivise so many cops to retire after 30<br />
years’ service and simply ship their experience<br />
and knowledge into the private sector does not<br />
make sense. Some kind of pension re<strong>for</strong>m is<br />
needed <strong>for</strong> the good of policing, not just <strong>for</strong><br />
economic reasons.<br />
• It was scandalous that Simon Harwood, the<br />
Metropolitan <strong>Police</strong> constable involved in the<br />
incident which preceded the death of Ian<br />
Tomlinson at G20 in 2009, was able to quit<br />
the <strong>for</strong>ce with a disciplinary hearing on a<br />
serious charge hanging over him, rejoin as a<br />
92 Upholding the Queen’s Peace