Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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A FORCE FIT FOR THE FUTURE<br />
different legal provisions: section 26 of<br />
the <strong>Police</strong> Act 1996 (England and Wales),<br />
the equivalent section 12A of the <strong>Police</strong><br />
(Scotland) Act 1967 and section 8 of the<br />
<strong>Police</strong> (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 in<br />
Northern Ireland.<br />
All appointments require the approval<br />
of the Home Secretary, the Minister of<br />
Justice for Northern Ireland or Scottish<br />
Ministers and the relevant <strong>Police</strong><br />
Authority. The 2008 <strong>Policing</strong> Green Paper<br />
supported the creation of an International<br />
<strong>Police</strong> Assistance Board (IPAB), chaired by<br />
the ACPO International portfolio holder<br />
(Chief Constable Colin Port) “to help<br />
co-ordinate and focus activity where it is<br />
most in the interests of the <strong>UK</strong>” 4 .<br />
Established in 2009, this senior crossdepartmental<br />
and police advisory body<br />
has a primary objective of facilitating and<br />
enhancing <strong>UK</strong> police assistance overseas<br />
from government departments, individual<br />
police services and agencies and to provide<br />
a key co-ordination point for the referral<br />
process between government departments<br />
and the police service.<br />
However, IPAB’s terms of reference<br />
do not include counter-terrorism or<br />
operational policing in an international<br />
environment. In recognising this<br />
fragmentation coupled with a lack of<br />
direct funding, ACPO International<br />
Affairs (ACPO IA) was established in June<br />
2010 to become the central co-ordinator<br />
for all international policing.<br />
Growth industry<br />
Despite these changes, a future mapping<br />
exercise will be needed across the range<br />
of international policing providers to fully<br />
understand the extent of international<br />
policing services currently being delivered<br />
across all sectors.<br />
International police assistance has<br />
become something of a growth industry,<br />
with requests for <strong>UK</strong> policing from the<br />
UN, the EU, the Organization for Security<br />
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and<br />
other multinational organisations, as well<br />
as the governments of individual countries<br />
– often those with long-standing historic<br />
links to the Commonwealth.<br />
Today there is an increased demand for<br />
the use of <strong>UK</strong> police (serving and retired<br />
officers) within missions that stem directly<br />
from <strong>UK</strong> foreign policy: this involves both<br />
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s<br />
(FCO) conflict-related policing assistance<br />
(e.g. Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan),<br />
and the Department for International<br />
Development’s (DfID) increased<br />
‘investment’ in broader security and access<br />
to justice programmes, as well as myriad<br />
ad hoc overseas missions. The activities<br />
of the FCO, DfID and the MoD have<br />
been supported by the cross-departmental<br />
Stabilisation Unit (SU) since 2004 and its<br />
SU <strong>Policing</strong> Team (SUPT) set up in April<br />
2011.<br />
A multi-partnership approach<br />
In broad strategy terms the <strong>UK</strong><br />
government recognises the link between<br />
organised crime, corruption and terrorism<br />
in failed states and the metropole though<br />
has as yet to put in place a formal<br />
international policing policy. The ongoing<br />
and future delivery of international<br />
policing assistance is challenged by the<br />
current restructuring within the police and<br />
ensuing austerity measures.<br />
The National Crime Agency (NCA)<br />
has been set up to promote the national<br />
security agenda within a globalised world<br />
and to tackle organised crime through<br />
a multi-partnership approach. This<br />
represents an opportunity for international<br />
policing activities to be fully integrated<br />
within NCA global practice.<br />
In addition, the new elected police<br />
and crime commissioners may focus<br />
predominantly on local policing issues<br />
with little perception of the transnational<br />
security links. Moreover the uncertainty<br />
as to the future rehousing of international<br />
policing within a police professional body<br />
with no dedicated funding may challenge<br />
the provision of serving <strong>UK</strong> police<br />
overseas.<br />
As a result, the <strong>UK</strong> policing brand will<br />
remain challenged by the state-corporate<br />
symbiosis; a growing private sector that<br />
provides ample opportunities for retired<br />
officers. This raises questions in relation to<br />
the protection of the <strong>UK</strong> policing brand<br />
value should retired officers use ‘out-ofdate’<br />
policing services.<br />
The deployment of officers from<br />
individual constabularies has depended<br />
on the willingness of Chief Constables<br />
(and now police and crime commissioners)<br />
to agree to an officer’s secondment, to<br />
cover their post, and guarantee a post on<br />
return from mission. Chief Constables<br />
are measured on their local performance<br />
and there is little incentive to engage with<br />
international policing. Therefore some<br />
Chief Constables are either in opposition<br />
to or uninterested in international policing<br />
and see a contradiction between issues<br />
of global security and local policing<br />
considerations.<br />
There is currently no commonlyheld<br />
police view as to whether there are<br />
additional benefits for a constabulary<br />
when an officer returns home from<br />
mission. Yet recent research has<br />
demonstrated that international missions<br />
have the potential to enhance the skillbase<br />
of police in ways that could benefit<br />
their future career pathway, their ‘home’<br />
constabularies and importantly the wider<br />
public community, thus reinvesting the<br />
value of international policing back home.<br />
Despite evidence that officers return<br />
with, for example, improved leadership<br />
skill and cultural awareness, international<br />
missions can be a career cul de sac.<br />
The future of international policing<br />
Retaining this international reputation<br />
for excellence and the unique ability to<br />
transfer the values inherent within the<br />
<strong>UK</strong> policing service is wholly dependent<br />
on the wider support of <strong>UK</strong> government<br />
and police. ACPO IA (and by extension<br />
IPAB) have created a one-stop-shop for the<br />
delivery of international policing services,<br />
providing easy access to <strong>UK</strong> police and<br />
stakeholders which is not available within<br />
the private sector.<br />
Through a future enhancement of<br />
corporate memory, the co-ordinating<br />
activities of this central hub will be<br />
strengthened and will provide a platform<br />
for a potential regulation mechanism<br />
straddling the state-corporate sectors.<br />
This will ensure that the <strong>UK</strong> policing<br />
brand retains its value and integrity on the<br />
international stage. In doing so it would<br />
bring the overseas co-ordination of <strong>UK</strong><br />
policing into line with other important<br />
international players, including the<br />
Australian Federal <strong>Police</strong> and the Royal<br />
Canadian Mounted <strong>Police</strong>.<br />
1<br />
Sinclair, G. ‘Exporting the <strong>UK</strong> <strong>Police</strong> ‘Brand: The RUC-<br />
PSNI and the International Agenda’, <strong>Policing</strong>: A Journal of<br />
Policy and Practice, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March, 2012), pp. 44-66<br />
2<br />
Sinclair, G. & Williams, C. A. ‘Home and Away, The<br />
Cross-Fertilisation between ‘Colonial’ and ‘British’ <strong>Policing</strong>,<br />
1921-85’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 35,<br />
No. 2, (May, 2007), pp. 221-238<br />
3<br />
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, ‘A Strong Britain in an<br />
Age of Uncertainty: the National Security Strategy’, Cmnd<br />
7953 (London: FCO, Oct. 2010).<br />
4<br />
httpfiles.homeoffice.govpolicepolicinggreenpaper.pdf<br />
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