Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME
“If you are employing individuals who
do not have the warranted powers
of the Office of Constable, then you
are losing accountability and the
independence of the service.”
chief officer and the police and crime
commissioner will be good, grown up
and adult, by the very nature of human
dynamics, there are going to be some
that don’t hit it off. And there are going
to be some problems.
here does the olice ederation
of ngland and ales stand on
parts of policing being priatised?
We don’t have an ideological position
where we are against privatisation
of everything. We do, however, fear
privatisation is going to go too far. Why
is this so important
If you are employing individuals who
do not have the warranted powers of the
Office of Constable, then you are losing
accountability and the independence
of the service. From an operational
standpoint, you lose flexibility and
resilience.
We are also accountable to the public
we serve and not to boards of directors
or shareholders. And we don’t have to
make a profit margin on those shares.
All the money that comes into the police
service goes on protecting the public.
If the government is open to private
companies taking on more policing roles,
then this is the ideal opportunity to do it.
These companies are not doing anything
wrong they are doing absolutely the
right thing for their shareholders.
But we as police officers have a duty
first and foremost to the public we serve.
By cutting the police budget so far,
the government has created a reason
for police chiefs to have to look for
alternatives such as privatisation.
hat roles and parts of police
wor should neer be priatised?
Any role that takes away the resilience
and flexibility of the service to a degree
that public safety is put at risk. The
ability to respond to major incidents
may well go. I have real concerns about
that. I don’t want to see riots and major
disturbances in this country. Nobody
wants to see more disorder similar to
August 2011, but I think there is an
inevitability about it.
ow do ou see the police serice
looing in ears time?
I don’t think you can honestly predict
that. There is so much flux at the
moment, there are going to be so many
changes that nobody can say definitively
what it is going to be like in 10 years.
And this worries me and just about every
other police officer I speak to. Of every
rank.
Paul McKeever was interviewed by
Royston Martis.
1
www.hmic.gov.ukpublicationpolicing-in-austerity-oneyear-on
2
www.civitas.org.ukcrimeeuropolice.htm
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