Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME
Professionalising
police leadership
and training
Peter Neyroud offers his view of
how police training should change
Peter Neyroud is former Chief
Constable of Thames Valley;
former CEO of the National
Policing Improvement Agency;
and Editor, Policing UK 2013
For all the controversy about police
reform, it seems likely that pretty
much everybody on all sides of
the debate could agree that reducing
crime and dealing with offenders are
central parts of the police mission.
It should, therefore, surprise most
people that knowledge about the best
ways to reduce crime and deal with
offenders is not a core part of the
training curriculum for police officers.
The British police are not alone in
this. Most police forces around the world
insist that the key qualification for police
to practise is to know the law rather
than the most effective ways to deploy
it to reduce crime. It is the equivalent
of letting a doctor practise without
knowledge of how to prevent and cure
diseases.
It is perhaps equally surprising that,
given the enormous challenges in
making cuts and managing resources
in policing, police managers are not
qualified in management.
The qualifying process to become
a Sergeant or Inspector, the two key
frontline management positions, is
still remarkably akin to the Victorian
requirements to pass an examination
in the law and know the bureaucratic
procedures of the job.
There are good reasons for a
dependence on the law and procedures
at the heart of police training. We want
our police to adhere to the rules. It is
a crucial part of the legitimacy of the
police that they not only enforce the law,
but also obey it. But this is no longer
enough to deliver good policing.
Before research had begun to show
how policing can be most effective in
reducing crime, it is arguable that the
police could afford to rely on the law
and 180 years of practice. However, that
argument has become more difficult to
sustain as new research has challenged
standard practices and shown that the
most effective policing should be highly
targeted and based on science- and
evidence-based approaches.
My Review of Police Leadership and
Training was commissioned in 2010 as
part of the wider programme of police
reform. It was intended by Ministers to
provide a solution to the abolition of the
National Policing Improvement Agency
(NPIA) and its national standards
and training functions. But, standing
back from the immediate issues of
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