Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME<br />
“If the police and crime commissioner<br />
is not happy with the chief officer, they<br />
can sack them. It is as simple as that.”<br />
o police officers want industrial<br />
rights?<br />
<strong>Police</strong> officers do not want to<br />
strike. We find it extraordinary that<br />
Home Secretary Theresa May and<br />
the government are changing the<br />
environment where the Office of<br />
Constable is being diminished and<br />
conditions are being created where<br />
police officers are more like employees,<br />
where they will not be crown servants<br />
and will be subject to potential duress<br />
through severance.<br />
What some officers are saying is that<br />
if that is the route the government wants<br />
to go down then we should have the<br />
opportunity to lobby for full employment<br />
rights, full industrial rights. This is an<br />
unintended consequence of what is<br />
happening at the moment.<br />
h has in our words policing<br />
been treated differentl to other<br />
public serices on budget cuts?<br />
Clearly it has been. Whichever<br />
government came into power in May<br />
2010 at the General Election was going<br />
to have to make some difficult decisions.<br />
This government has decided to turn the<br />
taps off in the public sector and we have<br />
been hit harder than anyone else.<br />
National Health Service funding is<br />
ring fenced. Education has been cut by<br />
around about per cent, defence by<br />
per cent. Overseas development has<br />
been increased by 34 per cent. Not cut.<br />
<strong>Policing</strong> is being cut by 20 per cent.<br />
That is very dramatic for a service that<br />
spends most of its money on those who<br />
work within it.<br />
There is not a lot of room elsewhere…<br />
apart from cutting officer numbers and<br />
cutting and suppressing officer salaries<br />
to make reductions of that sie. We were<br />
assured by the government that the front<br />
line would not be affected. Well it has<br />
been. The HMIC revealed in uly 2011<br />
that by March 2015, 5,00 frontline<br />
police officers would be lost. 1<br />
ith fewer police officers does<br />
crime go up?<br />
There is a real correlation between<br />
the number of police officers you have<br />
per 100,000 of the population and the<br />
amount of crime. 2 ou cannot disregard<br />
this. If you are downsiing the police<br />
service, putting people in place that do<br />
not have the powers of police officers<br />
and losing 16,000 officers, the first<br />
people who know this will be criminals.<br />
These are the people we deal with the<br />
most and are the people that shouldn’t<br />
be rubbing their hands with glee – which<br />
they will be doing – when they realise<br />
there will be fewer officers on the streets<br />
to deal with their criminality.<br />
hat is most worring our<br />
members nowtheir own future<br />
pa and conditions or public safet<br />
as a result of the cuts?<br />
The changes are so massive. I think that<br />
is intended by the government, shock<br />
and awe almost, to try to destabilise the<br />
service so they can try to shake it up<br />
from top to bottom.<br />
<strong>Police</strong> officers are concerned. The<br />
message I get from officers up and down<br />
the country is that they feel less safe<br />
because of the shortage of numbers on<br />
the front line. They are also fearful of<br />
the risks the public are now being put<br />
under. These are operational cops on<br />
the front line. They are experiencing the<br />
reality of what is happening.<br />
s policing becoming too political?<br />
It is hard to tell. That will be better<br />
answered a few years down the line. We<br />
will get a better perspective of what is<br />
going on. There is so much happening<br />
at the moment that it is hard to put it all<br />
together.<br />
hat about police and crime<br />
commissioners?<br />
We have been very clear about police<br />
and crime commissioners from the<br />
start. We can see there are going to be<br />
potential problems…<br />
hat problems?<br />
The principal problem is one of<br />
operational independence for the<br />
police. The government has said that<br />
operational decisions can and still will<br />
be made by the chief. But the dynamic is<br />
being changed.<br />
The police and crime commissioner<br />
is very much the one in charge. The<br />
chief officer is in a subsidiary role. If the<br />
police and crime commissioner is not<br />
happy with the chief officer, they can<br />
sack them. It is as simple as that.<br />
Therefore you can exercise political<br />
control over the operational decisions of<br />
policing. Chief officers like everyone else<br />
have to earn a living. They have to pay<br />
the mortgage and bills. If they feel their<br />
job is at risk, then clearly some will have<br />
undue influence over them it is the<br />
same sort of worry I have over the Office<br />
of Constable.<br />
hat does this mean to the<br />
traditional model of ritish<br />
policing?<br />
This is a major concern. Although<br />
most of the relationships between the<br />
POLICING <strong>UK</strong> | 43
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