Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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SPONSORED FEATURE<br />
<strong>2013</strong>: <strong>Police</strong> leadership<br />
under the microscope<br />
By Derek Barnett, President<br />
of the <strong>Police</strong> Superintendents’<br />
Association of England and Wales<br />
Depending on your own individual<br />
perspective, the police service<br />
enters the New Year either in<br />
chaos or on the wave of unprecedented<br />
success.<br />
The media reporting of policing<br />
issues in the latter part of 2012 made<br />
uncomfortable reading. The row over the<br />
Andrew Mitchell affair that resulted in his<br />
resignation was re-ignited when Channel<br />
4 News claimed to have found video<br />
evidence that cast doubt over the account<br />
given by police officers. This was further<br />
compounded when it was revealed that a<br />
serving police officer had been arrested –<br />
having allegedly claimed to be a member<br />
of the public who had witnessed the<br />
incident at the gates of Downing Street.<br />
Meanwhile, the IPCC launched its<br />
biggest ever investigation into the conduct<br />
of the police at Hillsborough, there were<br />
calls to investigate the policing of the<br />
miners strike and to examine historic<br />
investigations into Jimmy Savile and the<br />
Rochdale MP Cyril Smith.<br />
At the same time, a record number of<br />
senior officers have faced either criminal<br />
or misconduct investigations and some<br />
have been arrested or suspended from<br />
duty.<br />
This is all against a background of<br />
growing discontent within the service<br />
about the speed and scale of the policing<br />
reform programme that has seen a 20 per<br />
cent cut in funding, a pay freeze, radical<br />
changes to police pensions and plans<br />
to significantly reduce the starting pay<br />
of police constables. There is a steadily<br />
worsening relationship between the<br />
government and the police service.<br />
And yet, if one looks beyond the lurid<br />
headlines, we see record falls in recorded<br />
crime, increasing public confidence<br />
and satisfaction. Two authoritative and<br />
independent reports by Lord Leveson and<br />
HMIC concluded that corruption was<br />
not endemic in the police service, and the<br />
most recent research by the IPCC revealed<br />
that when the public are asked about<br />
their concerns in public life, corruption in<br />
policing is not to the fore.<br />
There are two contrasting views of<br />
the situation we face, one that believes<br />
policing is in crisis and that police<br />
leadership has failed, and one that believes<br />
all the criticism is unfair and that left well<br />
alone, all in the garden is rosy. As often in<br />
these matters, the reality lies somewhere<br />
between the two extremes.<br />
What is needed more than ever at this<br />
critical time is calm heads and an honest<br />
appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses<br />
of policing today. Never before has<br />
leadership in policing been as much under<br />
the microscope. That leadership must<br />
come from within the service at all levels,<br />
but also at the highest political level. It<br />
cannot be in the public interest to have a<br />
vital public service such as policing, one<br />
that has public safety at its core, to be seen<br />
to be in open dispute with government.<br />
<strong>Police</strong> leadership<br />
Notwithstanding the excellent<br />
performance in recent years and rising<br />
public trust and confidence, police leaders<br />
at all levels have to recognise that there are<br />
genuine grounds for public disquiet.<br />
The <strong>Police</strong> <strong>Federation</strong> is a staff<br />
association established by an Act of<br />
Parliament. It is not a trade union and has<br />
none of the rights and powers that unions<br />
enjoy; its strength historically has been the<br />
sense of unity within its membership and<br />
the power and cogency of its arguments.<br />
In recent months that unity and<br />
clarity of purpose has been lacking<br />
and we saw how individual branches<br />
within the <strong>Federation</strong> pursued their own<br />
agenda in calling for the resignation of<br />
a government minister, and a national<br />
level campaign to oppose the government<br />
austerity measures. It is encouraging that<br />
the newly elected Chair of the <strong>Police</strong>