Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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THE ROLE OF POLICE<br />
not only for criminality but the means<br />
available to combat crime that will have<br />
procurement, inter-operability and<br />
training implications. Weisburd and<br />
Neyroud (2011 4 ) talk about the blue line<br />
being blue chip if the police service is to<br />
manage itself and place its efforts into<br />
what works, ie, operational innovations,<br />
which have been the subject of systematic<br />
review rather than rely on the good faith<br />
of traditional working practices.<br />
6. Widening of provision of policing<br />
from a plurality of sources that will be<br />
a natural extension of what Leishman,<br />
Loveday and Savage predicted in<br />
1996 5 . We already have an extended<br />
police family consisting of warranted<br />
officers, civilian support staff, police and<br />
community support officers, volunteer<br />
special constabulary. New members<br />
from the private sector are already being<br />
admitted and there are likely to be other<br />
coalitions linking public and private<br />
sectors.<br />
Principles<br />
It is accepted that the police service in<br />
the <strong>UK</strong> derives its legitimacy from a<br />
model of policing by consent, which is<br />
held as a sacrosanct principle. It is this<br />
that underpins the cycle of trust and<br />
confidence whereby the public co-operate<br />
with police through reporting crime,<br />
providing intelligence and remain willing<br />
to appear as witnesses in court and<br />
complying with lawful instructions from<br />
officers.<br />
The other principles governing a<br />
democratic police service are taken<br />
from the template offered by the Patten<br />
Commission (1999 6 ) namely:<br />
Professional – continually striving to be<br />
effective and efficient<br />
Impartial – free from bias and from<br />
partisan political control;<br />
Accountable – under the law for its<br />
actions and to the community it serves<br />
operationally, managerially, financially<br />
Representative – of the society it<br />
polices;<br />
Human rights compliant – fair and<br />
protective of the public.<br />
These represent the yardstick by which<br />
to judge the future shape of the police<br />
service.<br />
Themes<br />
The Commission has identified seven<br />
themes that will form the basis of its<br />
evidence gathering and conclusions.<br />
These are represented in Figure 1.<br />
When designing an organisation<br />
it is helpful to have some clarity of<br />
purpose. We fondly talk of the Peelian<br />
principles as the historical and enduring<br />
underpinning of the British police<br />
service. It is worth re-visiting these as<br />
their provenance is somewhat suspect as<br />
deriving from Peel himself.<br />
They are more likely an invention of<br />
the historian Charles Reith (Lentz and<br />
Chaires, 2007 7 ). While the sentiments of<br />
the nine principles may well stand the<br />
test of time, there clearly has been some<br />
shift of emphasis in what is held to be the<br />
main purpose of policing.<br />
Peel’s direction to the police<br />
emphasised the prevention of crime<br />
and maintenance of public tranquillity.<br />
As codified by Patten in the case of<br />
Northern Ireland, modern concepts such<br />
as human rights should be considered<br />
when defining purposes of the police.<br />
Similarly the question might usefully be<br />
asked how far back the police should be<br />
involved in the causes of crime argued to<br />
be rooted in deprivation, unemployment,<br />
poor parenting and welfare dependency.<br />
Issues of legitimacy and accountability<br />
are highly-contested areas according to<br />
Reiner (2010 8 ), the last 20 years has seen<br />
movement towards more local control<br />
culminating in the elected police and<br />
Figure 1: Commission themes<br />
Legitimacy<br />
Governance and<br />
accountabilities<br />
Purpose<br />
(Reviewing the Peelian principles)<br />
Delivery<br />
Operational style<br />
Infrastructure<br />
support<br />
Resources<br />
(Sources, spending how much and on what)<br />
crime commissioners (PCCs). PCCs<br />
will have powers to direct local police<br />
priorities in response to local needs.<br />
However there is also a requirement<br />
set out in the strategic policing<br />
requirement document (Home Office,<br />
2011 9 ) to engage in policing of national<br />
threats such as terrorism, organised crime<br />
and public order, which it is recognised<br />
a single force may not be able to handle<br />
alone. Forces are required to have the<br />
capacity and consistency to respond<br />
to such threats as and when they arise.<br />
Thus the Commission is interested in the<br />
structural arrangements that might ensue<br />
to deliver these protective services.<br />
The Commission is also interested<br />
in models of delivery of policing tasks,<br />
which links in the advocacy of evidencebased<br />
practice through the newlyproposed<br />
College of <strong>Policing</strong>. This also<br />
links with the workforce in terms of who<br />
we want to be the police officers and staff<br />
working for the police.<br />
Finally, all of this is underpinned by<br />
resources and the Commission will take<br />
a view on financial aspects of delivery<br />
policing.<br />
Mapping the problem space<br />
At this stage a picture is emerging of<br />
some of the key issues which might be<br />
described as a problem map. Clearly there<br />
are potentially different demands being<br />
made on and of the police by the state in<br />
Organisation<br />
Structures, systems<br />
Relationships<br />
Agencies, diverse communities,<br />
general public<br />
Workforce<br />
Professionalism<br />
58 | POLICING <strong>UK</strong>