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
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civilian employee a few days later and<br />
eventually return to uni<strong>for</strong>m. How many blind<br />
eyes were turned to allow this to happen?<br />
• Further, it is shameful that PC Harwood’s<br />
disciplinary tribunal is only the second police<br />
misconduct case to be held in public and quite<br />
unfair that he should be paraded in the public<br />
arena while chief constables like Grahame<br />
Maxwell and <strong>Sean</strong> Price are allowed private<br />
hearings. Policing is perhaps the most sensitive<br />
public service and it is essential <strong>for</strong> public<br />
confidence that there should be more<br />
transparency around the disciplinary process.<br />
• The kneejerk condemnation of all private<br />
sector involvement in policing is shortsighted.<br />
The West Midlands <strong>Police</strong> business partnering<br />
project was not a G4S outsourcing deal, but an<br />
ambitious attempt to look at how innovative<br />
ideas from private industry might help detect<br />
crime and serve victims. Why does the friendly<br />
voice at First Direct know so much more<br />
about their customer than the police call<br />
handler does about the repeat victim of<br />
domestic violence or anti-social abuse?<br />
But the outsiders who hint at change or question<br />
the accepted way of doing things are regarded as<br />
enemies, not constructive critics or even critical<br />
friends. Early in my term in this job I was bluntly<br />
told by an ACPO figure that if I kept writing<br />
stories about the fat-cat deals of some retiring top<br />
brass I would be “jeopardising contact and cooperation<br />
with senior officers”. Frankly, I have seen<br />
far too much of this ugly, defensive face of the<br />
police.<br />
My instinct – as observer rather than policymaker<br />
or academic expert – is that a failure to<br />
embrace some beneficial and progressive change has<br />
left the police service unable to credibly challenge<br />
Upholding the Queen’s Peace 93