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Building Communities, Beating CrimeA better police service for the 21st century

Building Communities,Beating Crime

A better police service for the 21st century

Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Departmentby Command of Her Majesty.

November 2004

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iiiBuilding Communities, Beating Crime |

Contents

Home Secretary Foreword 5

Executive Summary 6

Chapter One: Building a better police service 13

Chapter Two: More effective policing – the case forfurther reform 29

Chapter Three: A new relationship between the policeand the public – building trust and confidence 45

Chapter Four: Building a new workforce 75

Chapter Five: Ensuring effectiveness 101

Chapter Six: Summary of proposals 131

Appendices 145Appendix I – Public Service Reform 146

Appendix II – Police Performance 154

Appendix III – Serious Organised Crime Agency 156

Appendix IV – Crime and Disorder Act 1998 158

Appendix V – Police Authority Membership 160

Appendix VI – Tripartite Relationship 163

Appendix VII – Glossary of terms 165

Appendix VIII – How to comment 170

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Preventing, reducing and detecting crime;providing safety and security for law-abidingcitizens and their families – this is what effectivepolicing is about and it is at the heart of civilsociety. We owe the men and women of our policeservice a tremendous debt of gratitude for thechallenging and sometimes dangerous job thatthey do. We also owe them our help and support toenable them to deliver effective policing. This iswhy we have embarked on an ambitious and far-reaching programme of reform.

Working closely with the service, we have seentangible development and achievements. There arerecord police officer numbers and 4,000community support officers. Crime has fallen by30% since 1997. We are cutting bureaucracy andmaking wider, better use of new technology andscientific techniques. We have embedded effectiveperformance management throughout the service.Fear of crime is falling. Through more effectivepartnership working, use of new powers and bestpractice, we are getting a grip on anti-socialbehaviour. The chances of being a victim of crimeare at the lowest level for over 20 years.

This paper sets out a clear direction of change aswe move into the second phase of reform – todeliver community policing for today’s world andface the new challenges of changing criminality.

We will spread dedicated neighbourhood policingteams across the country. They will be supportedby continued substantial investment that willmaintain officer numbers and provide 25,000community support officers and wardens.

We will embed a genuinely responsive customer-service culture and make the police and theirpartners more accessible, visible and accountable.

A new improvement agency will ensure thatpolicing is driven by intelligence, good practice andperformance information.

We will modernise the police workforce, enhancingtraining and career progression to improveleadership and management skills at all levels ofthe service. Continuing to cut bureaucracy will freeup the equivalent of 12,000 officers to front-linepolicing by 2008.

We will professionalise the critical role of the policeconstable as the lynchpin of neighbourhoodpolicing teams. Reform will be at all levels ofpolicing and criminality – from the very local,through regional and cross-border co-operation,to the strategic force and national level.

Working with the service and communities,this Government is committed to a broad andambitious programme of change to shape thefuture of policing. We are clear that this is reformfor a purpose. It is reform that builds upon andenhances the core role of the police to reducecrime and anti-social behaviour. It is reform toreinforce respect for the law and to protect andempower law-abiding citizens and communities.We are not imposing reform. We are workingcollaboratively to set the national framework withinwhich forces, police authorities, local governmentand local people can work together to build saferand more secure communities.

Rt Hon David Blunkett MPHome Secretary

Home SecretaryForeword

5Building Communities, Beating Crime |


Executive Summary

Context

The world in which the police service operatestoday has changed beyond all recognition.Technology has removed borders and barriers;changes in society have opened up newopportunities and challenges; increasinginvestment in public services and a growingconsumer culture has led to rising expectations ofcustomer service. The core role of the policeservice is, and will remain, prevention, detectionand reduction of crime, and protecting the public.The Government is already helping the police toperform this role more effectively throughinvestment in new technology, greater use offorensics and better gathering, management anduse of intelligence in policing.

Like all public services, the police service cannotbe immune from further change and continuousimprovement. Indeed the service has shown itselfprepared and willing to embrace change andmeet new challenges, whilst maintaining the

enduring values of the British police.

Sustained reform andinvestment

The Government andthe police service

are alreadyengaged in a

sustainedprogramme ofinvestmentand reformthat hasachieved realresults:

• record police officer numbers of nearly 140,000– up 13,000 on 1997 and 39,000 more than 30years ago;

• introduction of 4,000 community supportofficers with a commitment to recruiting25,000 CSOs and wardens by 2008;

• improvements in scientific and technologicalsupport; and

• a sustained focus on police performance.

This police commitment and Governmentinvestment have led to a drop in overall crime by30% since 1997. The chances of being a victim ofcrime are at their lowest levels since the BritishCrime Survey began in 1981.

This paper sets out the Government’s vision forcontinued improvements in policing to help buildsafety, security and stability in our communities.We want to continue to reduce crime, to tackleanti-social behaviour and disorder, to reducepeople’s fear of crime and to ensure that law-abiding citizens, families and their children areprotected.

Objectives

Underpinning the clear requirement that theprimary job of the police is to prevent, deter,detect and reduce crime, this paper has threebroad objectives at its heart:

• the first is the spread of neighbourhoodpolicing for the 21st century to everycommunity with improved policeresponsiveness and customer service;

• the second is further modernisation of thepolice workforce to ensure that the service isfully equipped and able to deliver thesechanges;

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• the third is the greater involvement ofcommunities and citizens in determining howtheir communities are policed.

Bureaucracy

A critical element of delivering a more visible andaccessible police service is the Government andpolice service’s continuing drive to reducebureaucracy and free up more officers for front-line policing. We are removing unnecessaryburdens, scrapping unnecessary forms, offeringpractical assistance to forces through theappointment of an assistant chief constable whois visiting forces to spread good practice and theintroduction of an actionline. By 2008 – by cuttingbureaucracy, improving science and technologicalsupport, and other reforms – we will have freedup the equivalent of 12,000 officers for front-lineduties.

Revitalised community policing fortoday’s worldRevitalised neighbourhood and communitypolicing for the 21st century is central to theGovernment’s approach. By 2008 we want everycommunity to benefit from the level and style ofneighbourhood policing that they need. This willinvolve dedicated teams of police officers,community support officers and wardensproviding a visible, reassuring presence,preventing and detecting crime and developinga constructive and lasting engagement withmembers of their community.

Neighbourhood policing teams

Fully trained officers using modern techniquesand updated powers, working with CSOs with aminimum set of powers, will make upneighbourhood policing teams. They will takean intelligence-led, proactive, problem-solvingapproach to enable them to focus on and tacklespecific local issues. They will involve their localcommunity in establishing and negotiatingpriorities for action and in identifying andimplementing solutions. They will ensure a two-way flow of information with the community tobuild trust and co-operation to help them dealmore effectively with crime and anti-socialbehaviour. Police and their partners providinguseful and meaningful information on how acommunity is being policed will encourage andempower individuals to work with the police,feeding community intelligence into crimeprevention, detection and reduction. This is not asubstitute for, rather an underpinning of, solid,professional police work to investigate crime andcatch criminals – necessary to tackle systematicand organised criminality.

£50 million of new money for the NeighbourhoodPolicing Fund will deliver 2,000 communitysupport officers during the course of this financialyear. Many forces are already putting in placesuccessful and effective neighbourhood policing.We will build on this good practice by providingsupport for 25,000 community support officersand wardens by 2008.

Responsiveness

Neighbourhood policing is at its most effectivewhen it is a shared undertaking with the localcommunity. People, and in particular victims andwitnesses, will only engage with their local police ifthey have confidence that when they make contactthey will be treated well and that their concernswill be listened to and acted on effectively.


Instilling a strong customer service culturethroughout the police service is therefore a centralobjective of the reforms set out in this paper.

Minimum national standards

Forces, Basic Command Units andneighbourhood teams will deliver services withthe needs of their users very firmly in mind. Theywill act on customer feedback to generatecontinuous improvement in the service theyprovide. This means delivering guaranteedstandards of customer service to the publicwhenever they have contact with the police.Every force will have these standards in placewithin two years and will agree with theircommunities how the standards can be built onlocally.

As a result of these changes it will be far easier tocontact the police; the way calls from the publicare handled will be improved; and victims will bebetter informed on the progress of their cases. Inaddition to improving the general information tothe public about the availability of services wealso intend to put in place a national non-emergency number, linking into a range ofservices, to improve the effectiveness of dealingwith non-emergency calls. Performancemeasurement of the police will include a level ofpublic satisfaction.

What will be different?People will see a more visible, accessiblepolice presence on the streets and in theircommunities – making full use of the recordnumbers of officers in the service. There willbe clearer and easier means of contacting thepolice and other services to deal withproblems. The service provided will beprofessional, courteous and will be designedto meet people’s diverse needs and give themmaximum confidence that their problems andconcerns will be dealt with.

For example, if you have an anti-socialbehaviour problem in your street – persistentgraffiti or vandalism – then you will be able todiscuss this with your local neighbourhoodofficer or community support officer. You willknow who that person is or, if you don’t, youwill very quickly and easily be able to find outhow best to make contact with them. If youare not sure who the right person to contactis you will be able to use the single, nationalnon-emergency number that we willintroduce. However you make contact andwhoever you make contact with, you can beclear of the standard and quality of servicethat you are entitled to receive. Your localofficers will work with you and yourneighbours to identify the most appropriatesolution to the problem and work togetherwith their partners in the local authority orother local agencies and communitiesthemselves to deliver that solution.

A dynamic, modern workforceDeveloping a modern police workforce isessential as the foundation for deliveringsuccessfully the changes that we describe in thispaper – as well as continuing to drive down crimeand provide safety and security. We need to fosterand build a culture of learning and self-improvement within the police service. It has tobe a service in which the contribution ofeveryone – officers, police staff and volunteers –is fully recognised and used to the full in thedelivery of front line services.

Leadership at all levels

The role of the police officer is, and will remain,fundamental to the success of the police service.Constables are taking on increasingly skilled roleswithin neighbourhood policing teams, managinga diverse range of staff and acting as communityleaders. We want to help them to do that. We willwork with the police service to equip leaders atall levels of the service with the knowledge, skills,confidence and freedom they need to do this.

Sergeants and inspectors will have access totraining to develop their managerial, leadershipand operational skills. Over time there will be amandatory qualification for superintendentsseeking to become Basic Command Unitcommanders.

Career development

Measures in this paper build on work already inhand to develop an integrated approach tocareer development in the police service.The foundations of this approach are nationaloccupational standards and an effectivePerformance and Development Review system.We will introduce proper career development forall members at every level of the service. We willremove barriers to entry at levels above constable

and we will end time limits on promotion. We willremove barriers for police staff becoming policeofficers, and enhance the skills and roles ofpolice staff.

Powers

We will strengthen the roles of police staff andintroduce national standards and a minimum setof powers for community support officers. Theseminimum powers will contribute towards freeingup police officers for frontline policing byincluding the power to issue a range of fixedpenalty notices. Following a successful pilot in sixforces, we will empower all forces to be able togive their CSOs the power of detention. We arealso committed to ensuring that the powersavailable to police officers themselves are up-to-date and effective – equipping them for thedifficult and demanding range of tasks that we callon the police to perform.

Equality

The Government and the police service remainfirmly committed to race and gender equality. Weare putting forward measures to increase therates of recruitment, retention and progression ofminority ethnic, female and other under-represented groups in the service.

Building Communities, Beating Crime | 9


Greater involvement of communitiesand citizensTo be more responsive and citizen-focused andbe successful at reducing crime, the police servicemust be much more closely engaged with localpeople.

Information

Local people need to be clear who is responsiblefor what in terms of community safety. They needto understand how they as individuals, familiesand members of the community, can play a role in

What will be different?A modernised police workforce will supportour drive towards a service which is focusedrelentlessly on the needs of the law-abidingcitizen.

You, the citizen, will continue to see a muchgreater police presence in your community asa result of the growth in the workforce andthe more effective deployment of officers,CSOs and police staff. The service will reflectthe community in which you live in terms ofits diversity of background, experience, skillsand knowledge.

You, the police officer, CSO, or police staffmember will benefit from our commitment toskills development and career progression. Youwill have improved opportunities and a clearercareer pathway through the service. Reducedbureaucracy and improved powers will meanthat you are better able to do the job that youwant to do, that you were trained to do andthat your community expects you to do.

keeping their communities safe and in preventingand reducing crime; how they can have a say insetting local priorities, and how well their localpolice are performing. This information needs tobe available to every household and peopleshould know what they can do, including how totrigger action through their local councillor, iflocal problems are not being tackled effectively.

Community advocacy

We want to enhance the current role ofcouncillors and local authority community safetyofficers to give them an explicit remit to provide afocal point for the local community in terms ofdealing with those agencies responsible forcommunity safety. They would ensure effectiverepresentation of people’s concerns andempower people to work with the police andothers to find better solutions to their problems.They would ensure that local people’s views arerepresented on the quality of service provided bythe police and other community safety agencies.

Triggering action

If the service that a community receives does notmeet the standards set out in their local contractwith the police, or if there is a particular problemassociated with crime or anti-social behaviour,there will be a specific mechanism to triggeraction at a number of different levels. At the firstlevel, this will be to gain information that is notalready available. At the next, it will be to requireattendance by the police or relevant local agencyat a public meeting to discuss the issues andexplain what action they are going to take.It could also lead to a specific request to takecertain actions to address the problem. If theagencies decided that no action was to be taken,the agencies concerned would need to explain why.

Police and local authorities

The changes set out in this paper cannot beachieved by focusing solely on local communitiesand neighbourhoods, nor can a sustainedreduction in crime and anti-social behaviour. Thelocal government cabinet member withresponsibility for community safety will sit on thepolice authority to strengthen democraticaccountability. The role of police authorities inensuring effective delivery of policing will also bestrengthened. They will oversee localconsultation, including the relationship betweenCrime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships andneighbourhood bodies. We will also enhance theirrole in holding chief officers to account.

Local to national

Nor can neighbourhood policing, vitallyimportant though it is, be looked at in isolation.Unless the police are effective at tackling crimeand criminality from the local to the nationallevel, then the public will not have confidencethat the service is actually delivering. Alongsideproposals in relation to responsiveness andcustomer service we also need to strengthen theservice as a whole. This means effective leaders atevery level within the police service, working withstrengthened partnerships; better approaches totackling cross-border and serious organisedcrime; national coherence on issues such as thegathering, management and sharing ofintelligence; effective use of science andtechnological advances; robust performancemanagement arrangements; and a NationalIntelligence Model effectively used by all forces.

We have a great deal for which to be grateful tothe men and women of the police service – fortheir integrity, their effort, their concern for theirfellow citizens and for their courage. This policypaper is aimed at enabling them to deliver, in thefuture, an even more effective service to thecommunities they serve.

What will be different?The police service will be more accountableto local democratic structures and to theirlocal community. Police authorities will bemore closely connected with and visible totheir local community so that the line ofaccountability is clear.

You will be kept fully informed about policingin your local area – performance as well aswho is responsible for what. You will knowwho to go to and how to contact them whenyou have concerns or problems relating todelivery of community safety services in yourareas. Most importantly, you will know whereto go if you are dissatisfied and need redressfor the service you have received. In extremecases, you will be able to trigger action toaddress your concerns.



Chapter One: Building a betterpolice service


Chapter One: Building a better police service

– to build a better police service for the 21stCentury – is total. It is Government’s role to setthe national direction, strategic framework andtargets for policing in this country. This policypaper stands as part of that process. But withinthis overall framework – part of which is aboutencouraging a new dynamic in terms of theinvolvement and engagement of the public inbuilding safer communities – the Government isclear that locally, it is for chief constables andpolice authorities to deliver effective, responsivepolicing to the communities they serve.

1.4 The main thrust of our reforms is to pass powerfrom the political centre to local citizens andcommunities, to create new democraticaccountabilities and scrutiny, and to reinforce therole of elected councillors in local policing. Thispolicy paper establishes a broad framework oflocal control and accountability, but local peoplewill have the common sense and ingenuity todevise workable local arrangements appropriateto their circumstances. Our communities arediverse, and effective local policing must reflectlocal differences.

Reform does not begin here1.5 This paper sets out an ambitious agenda for

change which represents the next stage in thenecessary evolution of policing to help ensuresafety, security and stability in communities acrossEngland and Wales. But reform does not begin

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Introduction1.1 Effective policing is at the heart of civil society.

It provides safety and security for law-abidingcitizens and families, protects them from crimeand anti-social behaviour and encourages stabilityin our communities. In all these respects, ourcountry has been indebted to its police service forover 175 years, since Robert Peel introduced theconcept of a professional service with the policeofficer as the citizen in uniform – thus laying thefoundation of the police service of today.

1.2 These fundamental concepts endure. Many of theessential requirements of the police service –absolute and total integrity, courage, concern forall within society and service to the citizen –remain just as crucial today as they did 175 yearsago. But there are real and considerable pressuresfor change. The public today has higherexpectations; society is more open; family andcommunity relationships have changed; we haveinstant global communications; crime andcriminality continually reinvent themselves and thethreats to the law-abiding citizen and to civilsociety change and grow. The police service canand must itself change and grow to meet thechallenges of today’s world.

1.3 The police service itself recognises that furtherchanges and improvements are needed. TheGovernment’s continuing commitment to workingwith the police service and supporting this process

This chapter summarises the Government’s approach to further reform of policing

in England and Wales; what it wants to achieve; what it believes the core role and

responsibilities of the police service should be; and what reform will mean for the

citizen, for the police service itself and for those working with and within it.


Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). Whilst retaining theimportant protection contained in that Act, wehave revised its accompanying procedures toreduce bureaucracy. We have, and will continue tomodernise other powers to ensure that the entirepolice workforce can operate as effectively aspossible in tackling crime.

1.8 Led in many cases by the police service itself, wehave seen the introduction of the new Airwavepolice radio communications system and thedevelopment of a world-leading DNA database.We have seen a real focus on police performanceand intelligence-led policing starting to take holdwithin forces. But recognising that the policecannot be responsible for delivering safercommunities on their own, we have alsorecognised the importance of effectivepartnership working. The bodies we haveestablished such as Crime and DisorderReduction Partnerships and Local Criminal JusticeBoards are vital elements in our approach. Thisprogress has been underpinned by sustainedGovernment investment in police funding –which has increased by 21% in real terms since1997. And the results of all this are that thechances of being a victim of crime are now athistorically low levels and the number ofburglaries, robberies and vehicle crimes – theso-called volume crimes – have all fallen sharply.We explore this progress further in Chapter Twoof this paper along with the pressures for furtherchange.

1.9 Most recently, the Government set out proposalsfor further reform of policing in its consultationpaper in November 20031 – to which there was asubstantial and constructive response.2 This hashelped inform the proposals in this paper – as

and end here. This is a developing agenda whichbuilds on the sustained programme of reform,which has been taken forward by the policeservice and the Government together, and theprogress that has already been made in terms ofmaking policing in this country more effective.Real results continue to be achieved across thecountry through the hard work of police forces,police authorities and their local and nationalpartners.

1.6 We now have more police officers (at nearly140,000) and police staff (at over 67,000) in thiscountry than ever before, together with over4,000 new community support officers. Policeofficers are better paid and supported – policepay has increased by 26% in real terms since1997. We have increased London allowances forofficers by £3,000; introduced a new South Eastallowance; increased paternity leave andintroduced adoption leave and provision for timeoff to care for dependents.

1.7 Despite this substantial growth in police numbers,people have the perception that there are fewerpolice on the streets. We are therefore engaged ina major drive to get the police out of their stations,out of their cars and back into communities – toprovide the more visible, accessible service thatthe public wants to see. This is vital for increasingtrust and confidence in policing. With the growingciviliansation of particular roles, improvedtechnical support like video identification parades,the introduction of Fixed Penalty Notices fordisorder and the removal of unnecessarypaperwork, we are freeing up more officers for thefrontline. Twenty years ago, legal challenges andthe erosion of public confidence led theGovernment of the day to bring in the Police and

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1 Policing: Building Safer Communities Together – published 4 November 2003, available at www.policereform.gov.uk

2 Published on 9 September 2004, available at www.policereform.gov.uk


have other thoughtful views from a range ofstakeholders both within and outside the policeservice; by best practice examples from aroundthe country and by a growing body of evidence ofwhat works in terms of reducing crime, bringingoffenders to justice and reassuring communities.Fundamentally, the approach outlined in thispaper reflects what the Government believes thepublic wants to see from its police service.

1.10 The Government is at one with the leadership ofthe police service in England and Wales about theneed for – and importantly – the direction ofchange. It is the ability of the police service in thiscountry to embrace change, and get things done,that makes the Government confident aboutmaking further improvements for the benefitof all our communities.

What do we want to achieve?1.11 The Government’s goal is, quite simply, to make

policing better – to help build safety, security andstability in communities across England and Wales.We want to further reduce crime and anti-socialbehaviour; reduce people’s fear of crime and anti-social behaviour; and ensure that law-abidingcitizens and families are protected. We believe thatthe police also play an important role in

“We believe that reform at intervals isinsufficient and that ‘constant transformation’is the only approach to serve the public well inthe 21st century… we believe that we are theguardians of the service we offer, not of thestructure we inhabit.”

(From the Association of Chief Police Officers’response to Policing: Building Safer

Communities Together)

rebuilding respect in our communities. But werecognise that the police cannot do everythingthemselves – effective partnership working is vital.

1.12 We want to improve the performance of all policeforces in England and Wales with forces doingbetter, with partners, at preventing, investigatingand detecting crime and bringing more offendersto justice. And we want this to be combined withhigh levels of public satisfaction, trust andconfidence in the police, particularly amongstvictims of crime and ethnic minority communities.But we cannot do this from the centre. Withoperational responsibility at the local level, it mustbe the job of the leaders of each force and policeauthority to ensure that this happens.

1.13 Fundamentally, the Government wants to ensurethat the police service in England and Wales is,and is seen by its workforce and the public, tobe a genuine service, not simply a collection ofdisparate police forces.

The police service has the key role inkeeping communities safe…

1.14 There are certain constants in terms of the rolewhich the police service has in our history andsociety. This role is founded on core values whichthe Government believes should not change – thepolice being independent and non-political;demonstrating a commitment to public servicenot social control; with officers and staff enforcingthe law, keeping the peace and acting withabsolute integrity at all times. And the police, likeeveryone else, are accountable to the law. On itsestablishment 175 years ago, the role of theMetropolitan Police was defined as:

“The prevention of crime… the protection oflife and property, the preservation of publictranquility.”3

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3 From Sir Richard Mayne’s instructions to the ‘New Police of the Metropolis’, 1829.

1.15 A number of reports, academic studies and (inScotland at least) Acts of Parliament4 have soughtto encapsulate the core role of the police inBritain. The Scarman Report in 1981 for example,following the unrest in Brixton in April that year,took the description quoted above as theauthoritative definition of the role of the police(and asserted that, if necessary, the “maintenanceof public tranquility comes first”).5

1.16 Policing does not, of course, exist in a timecapsule. It is the product of history, localcircumstance, political and societal changes and,in some senses, compromise. As the 1962 RoyalCommission on the Police asserted for example:

“…the police should be powerful but notoppressive; they should be efficient but notofficious…”.6

1.17 Since the 1962 Royal Commission, a number ofReports and Inquiries have had a bearing on therole which the police play in our country. For

example, the 1977 Committee of Inquiry on thePolice under Lord Edmund-Davies focused on thepay and conditions of officers to ensure theservice attracted and retained the best people toperform what was seen as an expanding role.Other reports have been significant – the 1981Scarman Report mentioned above for example;the report of the Taylor Inquiry into theHillsborough disaster; the Macpherson Report ofthe Stephen Lawrence Inquiry; Lord Laming’sReport into the death of Victoria Climbie; andmost recently Sir Michael Bichard’s Reportfollowing the Soham murders have, along withthe findings contained in other reports,influenced and led more directly to changes inthe way policing in this country is done and therole which the police service itself plays in oursociety. Our proposals for the future of policinghave been framed in the context of a rapidlychanging economic, social and culturalenvironment. They respond to the changingneeds of people themselves; changed behaviour;changing forms of criminality and the need toreinforce and rebuild respect, decency, self-restraint and care for others.

1.18 So the duties of the police – and the emphasisthat is placed upon them – change as societychanges, from generation to generation. Thereare some functions which, over time, have nowlargely become the responsibility of others – theprotection of animals and the routine protectionof commercial property for example. Otherfunctions have been added, even relativelyrecently, such as the statutory involvement in

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4 The Police (Scotland) Act 1967 defines the general functions and jurisdiction of constables which have been interpreted as describingthe function of the police in general. These functions include a duty to “guard, patrol and watch so as to prevent the commission ofoffences, preserve order and to protect life and property” (Chapter 77, Part I, s.17 of the Police (Scotland) act 1967 refers).

5 The Brixton Disorders 10-12 April 1981: Report of an Inquiry by the Rt. Hon. The Lord Scarman, OBE – November 1981 (Cmnd 8427).

6 Royal Commission on the Police 1962 (Cmnd 1728) – paragraph 57.


partnership working to reduce crime anddisorder in communities as required by the Crimeand Disorder Act 1998.

1.19 The challenges facing policing today are huge –in scale and complexity. So it is important, inproposing changes to meet those challenges, thatwe explore what the role of the police serviceshould be for this generation. In doing so, theGovernment recognises that the police servicein England and Wales has already accumulatedover time a broad role which goes far beyond thatrequiring formal police powers.

1.20 But the Government takes as its starting point thecore duties of the constable, who is required bylegislation to affirm to serve the crown:

“…with fairness, integrity, diligence andimpartiality, upholding fundamental humanrights and according equal respect to allpeople; and that I will, to the best of mypower, cause the peace to be kept andpreserved and prevent all offences againstpeople and property; and that while I continueto hold the said office I will, to the best of myskill and knowledge, discharge all the dutiesthereof faithfully according to the law.”7

1.21 The Government’s clear view is that the policeservice in England and Wales must have a broadrole, based in part on the core elements set outin the attestation for constables set out above. Webelieve this is vital in terms of maintaining thelegitimacy of the police service in the eyes of thepublic and meeting our desire to see increasedtrust and confidence in policing in this country.

1.22 The Government believes that policing in today’sworld needs to be about both preventing anddetecting crime and reassuring the public. Ourview is that excellent forces can and should doboth, as should police officers themselves. Visibleinteraction with the public provides reassurancebut also vital intelligence to help arrest criminalsand tackle all levels of crime – from anti-socialbehaviour to serious organised crime andterrorism; tackling crime effectively delivers, inturn, reassurance to local communities.

1.23 Policing is, clearly, not an exact science. Indeedit is an increasingly complex and challengingactivity. Within the kind of broad role outlinedabove, the Government recognises that policeforces perform complex and interlockingfunctions – and that these operate from the verylocal to the national level and beyond. There willalways be a need for the police to act as theservice of last resort – to protect life, respond toemergencies and manage crises – and be able todo so for 24 hours of the day; 365 days of theyear. So forces will have to maintain a reactivecapability to respond to incidents in real time.

1.24 But the Government’s view is that the policingpendulum has swung too far in the reactivedirection. We believe there needs to be a shifttowards more proactive, problem-solving policing– with forces getting better at preventing crime

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7 Schedule 4 to the Police Act 1996 as amended by section 83 of the Police Reform Act 2002.

happening in the first place, but also being betterat solving it when it does happen. It was noaccident of drafting that the first functionascribed to the then new Metropolitan Police in1829 was to prevent crime. We believe thatpolicing has shifted too far away from this ideal.So we place particular emphasis – as has thepolice service itself in recent years – on the needto embed a truly problem-solving, intelligence-ledapproach to policing throughout forces inEngland and Wales. This is behind the emphasisin this paper on dedicated neighbourhoodpolicing for today’s world, not that of the 19thcentury; increasing the responsiveness andcustomer service of the police; engaging betterwith the public and further modernising thepolice workforce – equipping police officers andpolice staff with the skills to meet the challengesof 21st century policing.

1.25 The Government wants to see a police servicewith the capability to deliver the breadth of itsrole – protecting individuals, securing publicsafety, preventing and reducing crime, bringingcriminals to justice, working with children, youngpeople and families – including safeguardingthem from harm – reassuring the public andhelping to build strong, cohesive communities.The Government believes that the proposals inthis policy paper will enable and empower thepolice service to fulfill these responsibilities.

…but keeping communities safe isnot just a job for the police

1.26 Although the police service plays now – and willcontinue to play – the key role in reducing crimeand anti-social behaviour and ensuringcommunity safety, the Government is clear thatthese are not matters for which the service aloneis responsible. Effective partnership workinvolving other criminal justice agencies, localgovernment and health agencies, children’sservices and the voluntary and business sectors is

vital. And the police need to work with nationalagencies like the National Crime Squad, theNational Criminal Intelligence Service (which willshortly be subsumed into the new seriousOrganised Crime Agency that we discuss inChapter Five) and our security and intelligenceservices to tackle serious organised crime andterrorism.

1.27 The Government is similarly clear in its belief thatindividuals and communities themselves have arole in this partnership. Local policing, forexample, is at its most effective when performedas a shared undertaking: policing being done withthe public. This is about individuals recognisingtheir own responsibilities in terms of helping toprevent and reduce crime, not just their right tolive in safer communities.

1.28 The Government is clear about the role it can andshould play – in setting the national direction andstrategic framework within which local policingshould be delivered and providing resources andpowers to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.The Government also believes it has a role inestablishing priorities in order to ensure safetyand security across our communities and for ournation; offering support to police forces wherethis is needed but protecting the public byintervening in cases of demonstrable failure orwhere, in the national interest, coherence inpolicing practices is required. The Governmentalso has a clear role in helping build confidenceand enabling and empowering people to play areal and active part in keeping their ownneighbourhoods and communities safe. TheGovernment recognises the need itself to bebetter joined up at a national level in terms ofcommunity safety issues.

1.29 The success of the approach to policing outlinedin this paper therefore depends, in part, on thesupport and work of others – local authorities, for

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example, exercising their responsibility forcommunity safety; effective partnership workhappening everywhere; more being done througheducation and social services to prevent youngpeople becoming involved in crime; the wholecriminal justice system working together morecoherently to catch, convict and rehabilitateoffenders; and probation, employment and healthservices working to resettle offenders and addressdrugs misuse. Overall, we believe in an approachwhich strikes a balance between help and supportfor individuals and families who need it – andtough enforcement for those who break the law.

1.30 This paper should also be seen in the context ofwider work taking place to build security in ourcountry and which puts the law-abiding citizenfirst – such as that detailed in the Home Officeand Criminal Justice five year Strategic Planspublished in July 2004.8 And, whilst recognisingthat some elements of policing differ from otherservices, the Government’s wider public servicereform agenda also provides an importantcontext. Further details of key elements of thiscan be found in Appendix I to this paper.

What does this mean for the futuredirection of policing?Neighbourhood policing

1.31 The Government believes that, as a starting point,we need revitalised neighbourhood policing fortoday’s world. Our clear view is that increasingpublic trust and confidence in policing – whileimportant in its own right – will also be a realbenefit for the police service itself. It will helpmake policing more effective. We believe thisrequires the spread of dedicated neighbourhoodpolicing teams across the country to provide avisible, uniformed, accessible presence for thepublic. Our continued drive to reduce

unnecessary bureaucracy, civilianise posts andimprove the technical support for policing willsee more officers on the frontline. We see policeofficers continuing to be the lynchpin inneighbourhood teams – but with those officersworking increasingly with police staff, communitysupport officers (CSOs) and wardens usingintelligence and real-time data to focus resourcesand respond to changing needs, backed up by thelatest technology. Our Neighbourhood PolicingFund will support and drive this approach. Wewill deliver 25,000 CSOs and wardens by 2008.

Responsiveness, customer service andcommunity engagement

1.32 The Government will seek to improve markedlythe responsiveness and customer service cultureof the police – including the treatment andsupport given to victims and witnesses. The firstcontact people have with the police – whereverthat takes place – is crucial in determiningpeople’s perception of and confidence in policing.It is an area where we and the police service itselfbelieve there is a clear and pressing need forimprovement. And this underpins our approach toneighbourhood policing which, at this very locallevel, is at its most effective when performed as ashared undertaking with the public. This meansmoving from traditional notions of policing simplyby consent or people’s passive acquiescence, topolicing with the proactive engagement andco-operation of communities. But if people areto engage, they need to be confident that theywill be treated well, and their voices heard andacted upon.

1.33 The detail of how the Government intends toembed dedicated neighbourhood policing acrossthe country and a new culture of responsivenessand customer service within the police service is

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8 Confident Communities in a Secure Britain (Cm 6287) and Cutting Crime, Delivering Justice (Cm 6288).

set out in Chapter Three of this paper. But thereare some other important changes, set out below,which are vital to achieving the objectives of ourprogramme for change and improvement. We seeall the elements as being inextricably linked.

A new police workforce1.34 The Government will continue to develop a more

modernised police workforce since, ultimately, itis people – not structures or mechanisms – whoare going to deliver the kind of truly responsivepolice service which has the trust and confidenceof communities – to which we aspire and thepublic wants to see.

1.35 Our approach means building a workforce whichis more representative of the communities itserves; is more unified, more flexible and has abetter mix of skills. We want to see a servicewhere police officers, police staff and volunteersfeel truly valued and get the support theydeserve; operate with professionalism, honestyand integrity at all times; and are properlyrecognised and rewarded for the jobs they do.And this means having quality training, learning,effective leadership and management at all levels– including, crucially, at the level of the policeconstable – and a continued emphasis onreducing unnecessary bureaucracy and increasingefficiency. Our aim is for a police service whichencourages innovation, is more open and self-challenging and demonstrates a thirst forcontinuous self-improvement. We believe thesechanges are vital if we are to embed a truecustomer service culture within the policeservice. We set out our proposals formodernising the police workforce inChapter Four of this paper.

Effective policing from local to national level1.36 Though vitally important in its own right, the

Government does not see neighbourhoodpolicing taking place in isolation from policing atother levels. The effects of organised crime, likedrugs smuggling at a national level for example,

all too readily manifest themselves on our streetsand estates. We, and the police service, cannothope to build the kind of deeper engagementwith the public leading to increased trust andconfidence in policing – if crime is not tackledeffectively at every level.

1.37 Building on the spread of neighbourhood policingteams, this means having empowered policeleaders at Basic Command Unit level together withstrengthened partnership arrangements to reducecrime; tackling cross border crime; increasedcooperation and collaboration at police force leveland improved arrangements for tackling seriousorganised crime and terrorism. It means havingnational consistency about certain elements ofpolicing like the collection and sharing ofintelligence. And it means policing as a whole beingsupported by continued scientific and technologicaladvances, modernised powers and systematic useof the National Intelligence Model as the core wayof doing operational police business. We look atthese issues in Chapter Five of this paper.

Clearer, stronger methods for ensuringeffective policing

1.38 Again, underpinning our approach to increasingthe responsiveness of, and communityengagement in, policing, the Governmentbelieves that people need to be clear about whois responsible for what in terms of keeping theircommunities safe – and how they themselves canplay a part and have a say in what their localpriorities for policing should be. The publicshould know how well those with responsibilityare performing – and how they can be held toaccount. For the public, how the present so-calledtripartite arrangement for policing between theHome Secretary, chief constables and policeauthorities works is, at best, opaque. Clarifyingand strengthening the existing arrangements arevital in terms of increasing trust and confidence inpolicing in this country. Chapter Five sets out ourproposals for change to the present arrangements.

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01

The Citizen

Our Vision for Neighbourhood Policing

A responsive neighbourhoodpolicing team

(Officers, CSOs, wardens, specials, volunteers)

Supported by wider partnershipsto cut crime

(led by BCU commanders with local government,voluntary sector, CJS agencies and others)

Driven by strong police leadershipand accountability

(Chief Constables and Police Authorities)

Within a framework of national support(National Policing Improvement Agency, SOCA, National Policing Plan)

Focusedthroughout by:– ten commitments

to citizens

– ten commitmentsto frontlineofficers

– the NationalIntelligenceModel

What will reform mean to local people?1.39 The Government is clear that the public needs

to see and feel improvements if our reformprogramme is to succeed. In terms of the vision

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10 Commitments to the publicThe Government believes that citizens should:

1. be and feel safer in their homes and communities;

2. know who their local police officer, community support officer and wardens are – and who is in chargelocally – and how they can be contacted; and receive relevant information about what is being done totackle crime and keep their community safe;

3. receive a much better service when they contact the police; be confident about getting help quickly inan emergency and receive a better service from the police and other agencies in dealing with callsabout important but non-emergency issues;

4. be clear about the level of service they can expect from their local police; understand that the policecannot do everything themselves; but know what to do if the standard of service they receive does notcome up to scratch;

5. be treated better as victims or witnesses to crimes, and have greater confidence that, if they are avictim, the offender will be caught and brought to justice;

6. be clear about the roles which the police and other partners play in tackling anti-social behaviour andcrime in communities and how they can be held to account – but also have the opportunity to have areal say in how their local communities are policed with the confidence that their views will be listenedto and acted upon;

7. have confidence that the police, local authorities and other agencies are working on their behalf inkeeping their communities safe and be aware of and be satisfied with their overall performance in doingso – but also know the part they can play in keeping themselves, their families and their communitiessafe – and be encouraged to take action and responsibility themselves;

8. be treated professionally, fairly, and with respect and integrity by the police – and know how to complainif this is not the case; and see a police service which is truly representative of the community it serves;

9. be satisfied that taxpayers’ money is being spent on the issues of most direct relevance to their safetyand well-being; and

10. be confident that the Government is providing support in terms of resources, powers, equipment andensuring the overall effectiveness of policing – and that it is driving a reduction in bureaucracy.

for further change set out in this paper, we thinkthat citizens should see improvements in anumber of key respects – set out in the10 Commitments below.


01

How we will make this happen

The Government will deliver these commitments through:

1. the spread of dedicated neighbourhood policing teams across the country using the latest real timedata and intelligence and backed up by the latest technology and supported by our NeighbourhoodPolicing Fund. We will deliver 25,000 community support officers and wardens by 2008 in addition tothe Government's commitment to maintaining officer numbers;

2. new customer service standards implemented in all police forces by 2006 – which will be built onlocally by contracts with communities which will set out the quality of service local people can expect toreceive when they contact the police; and the introduction of a new statutory Victims Code of Practiceto improve the standard of service that victims of crime receive from the police and other criminaljustice agencies;

3. introduction of a single (three digit) non-emergency telephone number and a national strategy toimprove call handling and response;

4. all households receiving relevant information about local policing issues;

5. clearer, stronger arrangements for holding the police and other responsible agencies to account for theirperformance in tackling crime, anti-social behviour and ensuring community safety;

6. a requirement on the police and other agencies to work directly with local people to identify theproblems that are most important to them – giving people real opportunities to have a say in localpolicing priorities;

7. introduction of a new mechanism to trigger a response by the police and other responsible agencies toparticular or persistent local problems of crime or anti-social behaviour;

8. improved training across the police service; changing the way police performance is measured toinclude public satisfaction; and with the new National Policing Improvement Agency supporting andencouraging a new culture of customer responsiveness at all levels within the police service;

9. a particular role within local authorities for 'advocates' to support the public and ensure their voice isheard on community safety issues; and

10. the Government's continuing focus on police performance; more flexible working by the police, greatercivilianisation and reducing bureaucracy to deliver the equivalent of 12,000 officers to the frontlineby 2008.

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10 Commitments to the police serviceFor police officers and police staff, the Government believes that reform should mean the police servicein this country:

1. having the support, engagement, respect and confidence of the public;

2. being freed up from bureaucratic burdens with unnecessary paperwork removed whilst maintaining aprofessional, accountable, thorough approach to apprehending offenders; with more police officers andpolice staff on the frontline supported by better IT and scientific improvements;

3. knowing that a customer service culture is both supported and valued within the police service – alongwith the promotion of innovative thinking and continuous professional improvement;

4. being confident that policing is being supported properly by Government – with officers and staff havingthe resources, powers – and equipment they need to do their jobs effectively;

5. having the flexibility to respond to, and deliver on, the things which most matter to their localcommunities;

6. being properly recognised and rewarded for the jobs they do;

7. being part of a more unified, integrated workforce – which is not hampered by outdated assumptionsabout hierarchy and status and where the best people get selected for each role; and with excellenttraining, learning, support and management being the norm at all levels;

8. working in an environment which respects diversity – and in which racism, sexism, homophobia andother inappropriate behaviour is freely and openly challenged and decisive action taken againstoffenders – and being part of a service which is truly representative of the communities it serves;

9. working in genuine partnership with others – whose roles and responsibilities in terms of communitysafety are clear – and who are accountable for their performance in fulfilling their responsibilities; and

10. being confident that there is a structure for, and approach to, policing which enables forces to tacklecrime effectively from the very local to the force national and international level with more joined up andeffective working between criminal justice agencies.

What will reform mean to those working in the police?


01

How we will make this happen

The Government will deliver these commitments through:

1. the spread of dedicated neighbourhood policing and new methods of engagement leading to a deeper,stronger connection with the public;

2. continuing to remove unnecessary bureaucracy and offering practical assistance to forces by wayof continuing improvements in scientific and technical support and the further modernisation ofpolice powers;

3. the implementation of improved learning and development programmes for everyone in the service withnational standards for Performance and Development Reviews forming the basis of coherent careerdevelopment and progression; removing the existing requirement for officers to have spent a specificnumber of years in a particular rank before being eligible for promotion and developing identifiablecareer pathways for all the extension of work-based assessments for promotion as alternativeto exams;

4. new, more family-friendly probationer training arrangements; the accreditation and recognition of priorlearning and a national qualification for officers who complete their probations; a Core LeadershipDevelopment Programme which will improve the managerial, leadership and operational skills of policeofficers – focused particularly on police constables – and police staff; improved training for communitysupport officers to better tackle anti-social behaviour and enhanced training leading to a specialistqualification for people wishing to take on Basic Command Unit commander roles;

5. multiple points of entry to the police service above the level of constable for those who can meet therelevant occupational standards;

6. removing barriers for police staff to become police officers in accordance with National RecruitmentStandards and enhancing the skills and roles of police staff;

7. maintaining officer numbers and investment; increasing the flexibility of deployment of police officersand staff through better management of shift patterns;

8. the rationalisation of existing national policing bodies and the establishment of a National PolicingImprovement Agency to develop good practice and work with forces to provide capacity, assistanceand operational policing support – including on the development of officers and staff;

9. recruitment of officers with specific language skills; establishing a national panel of recruitmentassessors from ethnic minority communities; more support for serving officers from ethnic minorities;targets for the progression of women in the service; and the introduction of a new Race and DiversityLearning and Development Programme and a duty of police authorities to promote diversity; and

10. greater freedom and autonomy where police forces and Basic Command Units have earned thisthrough effective performance – including an ‘inspection break’ on a rolling 12 month basis andadditional funding freedoms on targets for forces deemed to be graded excellent.

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When and how will change happen?1.40 The Government is clear about its role in setting

the national direction and strategic framework forpolicing in England and Wales. This is a dynamicand fast-moving environment. We have developedour agenda for further change very much indialogue with the police service and its partners.We do not believe that a Royal Commission onpolice reform – which some have called for – isdesirable, for the simple reason that it would notproduce quickly enough the answers and thedemonstrable improvements for communitieswhich we desire.9 The Government is clear that itshould set the pace of further improvement. It isthe role of Government to ensure equity and theprovision of good services to communities acrossthe country. This policy paper is part of thatprocess.

1.41 The Government recognises though that furtherimprovements in policing will not happenovernight. Some of the proposals in this paperwill require legislation – which we will progress assoon as Parliamentary time allows. Others willneed further discussion, refinement and piloting.And some improvements hinge, in part, on

changes in society itself – such as the way ourchildren are brought up, educated and develop.But we think that other changes can, and should,be made now. We are committed to working withpolice forces, police authorities, their partneragencies, other Government Departments andcommunities to ensure that people truly see andfeel improvements.

1.42 The detail of how the Government intends todeliver its vision for a better police service for the21st century is set out in the remaining chaptersof this paper. In taking forward the proposals inthis paper, we are mindful of the implications forcouncil tax. The full financial implications of theproposals set out here will become clearer as wedevelop these policies further. We will need toconsider where costs and savings fall in the lightof the accepted approach to funding newburdens. The key proposals for change aresummarised in Chapter Six and in theaccompanying leaflets, available at:www.policereform.gov.uk. But first we begin byexamining the progress to date in improvingpolicing and the case for further reform. This isset out in the following Chapter.

9 The last Royal Commission on policing began in 1960 and did not report until 1962.


Chapter Two: More effectivepolicing – progress to date andthe case for further reform


Reform does not begin here –progress to date

2.1 Policing in England and Wales is no stranger toreform. The last forty years have seen significantchanges in the way policing is structured andcarried out in this country.

2.2 The proposals set out in this paper represent thenext important step in this Government’ssustained programme to improve policing. Wepublished a previous policy paper on policereform in December 2001, with clear proposals toimprove police performance, modernise the payand conditions of officers and take forward theprocess of modernising the police workforce.1

We said at the time that the 2001 policy paperdid not represent a one-off change for policingin England and Wales. The same is true of thispaper. But in putting forward our proposals, weare clear that we are building on firm foundationsand real success.

Key successesThe police service, supported by theGovernment, has already deliveredkey successes:

• Overall crime has fallen by 30% since 1997,with particularly significant drops in the keyvolume crimes of burglary and vehicle theft.

• The likelihood of being a victim of crime isat its lowest level for well over 20 years andpeople’s fear of crime is now declining.

• Police numbers are at an all time high,reaching almost 140,000 in August 2004 –12,570 more than in March 1997. There arealso record numbers of police staff – 67,500– and 4,000 community support officers.

• Government funding for policing hasincreased by 21% in real terms sinceMarch 1997.

• We have overseen the nationalimplementation of the National IntelligenceModel as the core way of doing operationalbusiness.

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1 Policing a New Century: A Blueprint for Reform (Cm 5326).

Chapter Two: More effective policing –progress to date and the case for further reform

This chapter considers progress to date in improving policing in England and

Wales; why further reform is necessary; and the lines along which this should

develop in order to ensure that the police service of the rapidly changing 21st

century is equipped to meet the needs of those it serves.

2.3 The Government has also recognised the centralimportance of effective partnership working. Wehave established, for example, Local CriminalJustice Boards to bring together agencies like thepolice, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts,probation and prison services and Youth OffendingTeams. Through their partnership work, nearly 7%more offences were brought to justice in 2003-04than in 2001-02. We have also enshrined apartnership approach to community safety in theCrime and Disorder Act 1998. There are now 354increasingly effective Crime and DisorderReduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England and 22Community Safety Partnerships in Wales, bringingkey agencies together to contribute to sustainedreductions in crime. The 1998 Act also introducedAnti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to helpprotect communities from the kind of thuggishbehaviour which can blight people’s lives.

Key successes (continued)• We have invested approximately £650

million at national level in supportingvictims of crime, as well as giving new rightsto victims and reforming the Criminal JusticeSystem to provide better support for victimsand witnesses from charge, through the trialprocess and beyond.

• A much stronger performance culture is nowembedded within the police service.

• A new Independent Police ComplaintsCommission began work in April 2004.

• Amongst other ground-breakingdevelopments, we have developed a world-leading National DNA database, whichcurrently holds approximately 2.6 millionDNA profiles.

2.4 Of the successes listed above, the Governmentregards two particular issues to be critical parts ofthe bedrock on which the proposals in this paperfor further improvement will be built:

• police performance – raising theperformance of the police, and reducingthe variations in levels of performancebetween forces, has been at the heart of theGovernment’s agenda. We have seen a trueperformance culture start to take hold withinforces, driven by the complementary work ofthe Police Standards Unit which we establishedin June 2001 and by Her Majesty’s Inspectorateof Constabulary. Government, police forces,police authorities and, importantly, the publicnow have access to meaningful, effective localinformation about forces’ performance incomparison with other similar forces. Thishas ensured systematic and widespreadimprovement. A sharp focus on raisingperformance will remain vital to theGovernment’s approach to improving theoverall effectiveness of policing, for thebenefit of all communities.

• National Intelligence Model (NIM) – theGovernment sees the nation-wide adoption bythe police service of the National IntelligenceModel – which is about the professionalmanagement of intelligence to help directpolicing operations – as the single mostsignificant nationally implemented change inpolicing since 1997. Driven forward by thepolice service itself, it has been a vital stepforward in terms of moving away from areactive police service and towards one whichcan anticipate, prevent and fight crime moreeffectively at every level through the systematicbuild up of intelligence.

2.5 We explore these two issues further in ChapterFive of this paper.

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Why is further change necessary?2.6 The early 21st century is a time of rapid change

for the world in which we live. From trade tocommunication to travel, our modern world isdefined by being able to do things, buy thingsand reach places more quickly and easily thanever before. We now live in a genuinely fast-moving information age where, as a society, weare increasingly confident of asserting our rightsas individuals, consumers and citizens.

02

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Forces with whom PSU is working Forces disengaged from PSU

*August data is used in September 2004 for Kent, Gwent, Met, Staffordshire, Sussex and Warwickshire

The Government’s drive to improve performance of forces in the key crime types – burglary, vehicle crime androbbery – has shown strong results. As the chart below shows, at the end of September 04 (from forces’ owndata), 40 out of 43 forces in England and Wales were showing positive performance on reducing crime.Particularly pleasing is the notable position of the PSU target forces (shown in yellow) given that they wereengaged because of a performance gap on reducing crime.

Reduction in total of target crimes at the end of Sep 04* from 2002/03

2.7 The demands which this changing world puts onthe police service are substantial. The use ofmodern technology to move money betweencountries at the push of a button is an essentialpart of the financial industries which provide somuch of this country’s prosperity. But thepotential they offer to organised criminals isconsiderable. The increase in cheap and easytravel has provided simpler ways to traffic drugsand people and made it easier for criminals todisappear. And the international terroristnetworks, which our police service does so muchto combat with the security and intelligenceservices, thrive on the freedoms offered by themodern world in their attempts to destroy it.

2.8 The scale of this change reflects itself in the wayindividuals, families and communities feel abouttheir safety and security. Despite the major fallssince 1997 in exactly the types of crime mostlikely to affect people personally – burglary, cartheft and robbery – fear of crime, thoughdeclining, has not fallen in equal measure. TheGovernment believes this partly reflects particularproblems with anti-social behaviour, which it isworking hard to address. But it also highlights thefears and insecurities resulting from the rapidchanges which our society has gone through overthe last ten years.

2.9 These factors are, in themselves, significantdrivers for further change. And they form thebackdrop to the approach contained in this paperof making policing better and bringing about

further reductions in crime and anti-socialbehaviour and people’s fear of crime and anti-socialbehaviour. The Government sees some specificchallenges here, which we explore below. It isthese challenges which this policy paper is seekingto meet in order to achieve the overall objectiveof beating crime and building communities.

Crime is falling – but it is still too high2.10 Overall crime has fallen by 30% since 1997 –

including a fall of 5% in the last year.2 The risk ofbecoming a victim of crime is at its lowest levelsince the British Crime Survey (BCS) began in1981 and is one-quarter lower than in 1997, whichmeans 3.3 million fewer people falling victim tocrime now than just seven years ago.3 Whencompared with other European cities, Londoncomes out on top in a number of categories,including low crime rates.4 The Government’sfocus on ‘volume crimes’ such as burglary, robberyand vehicle crime has led to particularly noticeableresults. For example, the action of the policesupported by the Crime Reduction Programme,which has funded over 170 projects at a cost of£340 million, has helped to reduce burglary by42% since 1997. And the Street Crime Initiative,which has involved a wide-range of agencies(including businesses such as mobile telephonecompanies) working in partnership to deliver aprogramme of practical measures in response to asharp rise in robbery, has resulted in a 24% fall inrobbery in the 10 police force areas involved inthe initiative during its first two years, withrobbery continuing to fall.5 These achievements

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2 Based on interviews in the British Crime Survey for the 12 months to March 2004 compared to the 12 months to March 2003.

3 Crime in England and Wales 2003-2004.

4 Eurostat (European Union’s official statistical body) which is produced every 5 years. The analysis confirmed London as the only cityin Europe able to compete on the world stage with cities such as New York and Tokyo.

5 Crime in England and Wales Quarterly Update 2004 – recorded crime figures show a 15% decline in robbery in England and Walesin April to June 2004 compared with a year earlier.


highlight both the importance and the potential ofpartnership working in tackling crime. They alsodemonstrate the clear role for Government inidentifying issues of public concern, determiningclear objectives and galvanising key partners inorder to bring about improvements.

2.11 However, while these successes are real andsubstantial, crime in England and Wales remainstoo high, both in absolute terms and incomparison with other European countries andNorth America.6 That is why we have committedourselves through the new Public ServiceAgreement target from April 2005 to reduce crimeby a further 15% from 2002-03 to 2007-08, and bymore in high crime areas, with a particular focuson targeting prolific and priority offenders.7

Prolific and otherPriority Offenders StrategyHome Office research indicates that the mostprolific 5,000 offenders in England and Walescommit some 8-9% of all crime. That is whythe Government has developed a strategyfocused on preventing young people frombecoming prolific offenders, as well astargeting those who are already prolificoffenders in order to put an end, once and forall to the havoc they create for thecommunities in which they live. The strategy,which involves a range of agencies targetingtheir efforts on this key group of offenders,went live nationally in September 2004.

2.12 The make-up of violent crime and the extent towhich it comes to the attention of the policerepresents a particular challenge in the fightagainst crime. The number of violent incidentshas fallen by 36% since a peak in 1995 and iscurrently stable. Half of all violent incidentsreported to the British Crime Survey did notresult in any injury to the victim. Nevertheless,violence committed by strangers has not reduced,whilst violent crimes recorded by the police arerising, with inevitable consequences for people’ssense of insecurity. Gun crime represents aparticular area of public concern – while theoverall level of gun crime in this country isrelatively low and the most recent figures indicatesome levelling off, there has been a rise inrecorded gun crime.

2.13 Demand on the police is also affected by drug use.Drug testing of arrestees in pilot sites in Englandand Wales suggests that users of heroin, crackand/or cocaine commit six times more offencesthan non-drug users.8 Added to this, an increase inthe consumption of alcohol, especially amongstwomen and young people, has placed newdemands on the police. Almost half of all violentcrime is alcohol related.9 Alcohol-fuelled crime anddisorder is particularly manifested in the night-timedrinking culture in town and city centres, resultingin increased levels of demand for policing in theseareas. That is why the Government, through a jointACPO/Police Standards Unit led campaign whichhas been undertaken in partnership with theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport, the

02

6 The most recent International Crime Victim Survey from 2000 indicates a higher level of crime, especially violent crime, compared tothese other countries. The International Crime Victim Survey is a standardised survey, which uses exactly the same questions in allparticipating countries, carefully translated where necessary.

7 The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s fire PSA target, which is to reduce the number of accidental fire-related deaths in thehome by 20% and the number of deliberate fires by 2010, contributes to this crime PSA.

8 Holloway and Bennett (2004) The results of the first two years of the NEW-ADAM programme. Home Office.

9 Goverrnment Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy 2004.

Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatoryservices, the alcohol industry and trading standardsofficers, has cracked down hard on issues such asbinge and underage drinking, with initially veryencouraging results. A new campaign is plannedfor the Christmas/New Year period. The LicensingAct 2003 will encourage well-run premises to offeralcohol at more flexible opening hours, whilebearing down heavily on those premisesconsidered to be too lenient in dealing withdrunkenness, binge-drinking and disorderlybehaviour.

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10 Findings from the BCS 2003-04 show that fear of crime has fallen compared with the previous year, with falls in the proportion ofpeople with high levels of worry about burglary, car crime and vehicle crime. However, despite this reduction, 48% of the public stillthought that crime in their area had increased over the previous year.

KnivesThe growing use of knives is another issue of increasing public concern to which the police andother agencies must respond. Figures in relation to homicide show that homicides involving a sharpinstrument are in the largest single category of homicides and, although the proportion of totalhomicides which they represent is lower than 10 years ago, the number has been rising by smallamounts since 1996 and rose sharply in 2001-02. Metropolitan Police Service data shows that therewere nearly 6,600 knife-related crimes in 2004, which represents an 18% increase compared to 2003.Clearly these statistics call for action. That is why:

• We are seeking to fill the gap in our knowledge about the extent and nature of knife crime as a firststep towards an evidence-based strategy. Work at community level is likely to form a substantial partof the strategy, as it has with our work on tackling gun crime.

• The Metropolitan Police Service intends to undertake an initiative to deter young people fromcarrying knives on the streets of London. This was initially piloted in three Boroughs and is dueto be rolled out shortly across the remaining 29 London Boroughs.

• Work is on going with the Department for Education and Skills, the Home Office, ACPO andschools on how and when the police might be used to augment preventative and culture-changing measures in schools.

• We are looking at where existing legislation might be tightened.

The growing number of incidents of crimes involving knives must be checked. The Government isfully committed to driving down this trend to make our communities, streets and schools safer.

2.14 Tied to the commitment to reduce crime is adesire on the part of the Government to reducepeople’s fear of crime. Although both crime andthe fear of crime have fallen, people’s perceptionthat crime is actually falling – and in turn theirsense of security – remains too low.10 Violentcrime bears some responsibility for thisperception. But for many people it is the kind ofanti-social behaviour and disorder they see takingplace unchecked in their neighbourhoods whichdominates their perceptions.


2.15 Respect for each other and the areas in which welive is at the heart of strong communities. Anti-social behaviour undermines our communities,creating an environment of fear and neglectwhere more serious crime can take hold. It is forthese reasons that the Government has placed avery high priority on tackling anti-socialbehaviour. Largely as a result of this emphasis –and of initiatives such as the TOGETHERcampaign11 and Anti-Social Behaviour Prosecutorswhich have derived from it – public concernabout the problem of anti-social behaviour is nowfalling.12 But, as with other issues around tacklingcrime and disorder, more needs to be done.That is why, in addition to the ten “Trailblazer”areas already established, dedicated anti-socialbehaviour resources and support are to beintroduced in a further 50 action areas.13 If we areto reduce insecurity and the fear of crime, thepolice and their local partners must keep up themomentum in tackling anti-social behaviour – toshift the balance of power from the minority whospread fear and distress to the majority who wantto win back their neighbourhoods for themselvesand their children.

2.16 The British Crime Survey (BCS) is central to beingable to measure crime and the fear of crimeaccurately. The BCS measures crime as peopleexperience it, providing a very reliable indicatorof crime levels and trends, as well as how totackle these effectively in a way which will thenimpact positively on perception.

The British Crime Survey The British Crime Survey provides the mostcomplete, reliable and robust assessment ofcrime, covering all crime including bothreported and unreported crime.14 The surveyis conducted through 50,000 interviews eachyear, making it one of the largest surveys inthe UK, and its high quality design providesresults of the highest level of statisticalaccuracy available.15 The BCS asksinterviewees how often they have beenvictims of crime and elicits their perceptionsand fears. The same questions are asked eachyear, allowing a ‘like for like’ comparison ofpatterns of crime over time.

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11 “Together: Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour” – details available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/antisocialbehaviour

12 The BCS for 2003-04 showed that 16% of people in England and Wales perceived a high level of disorder in their local areas, areduction from the corresponding figure of 22% in 2002-03.

13 Confident Communities in a Secure Britain – page 15.

14 In 2003/2004, the BCS estimated that only 42% of incidents were reported to the police and this figure varied considerably acrosscrime types.

15 Both the criminological and policing communities respect the BCS as an authoritative and reliable measure of crime trends. Manypolice forces use the survey as a tool for designing their own surveys. The BCS has also been widely used by academics.

The British Crime Survey(continued)In contrast, recorded crime – as reported tothe police – is affected by how willing thepublic is to report crime. It is also influencedby changes in rules and practices forrecording crime by the police, providingtherefore a less robust comparative measure.As a result of continuing differences betweenforces in recording, the Association of ChiefPolice Officers developed a new NationalCrime Recording Standard (NCRS), to bringgreater consistency between areas, which wasadopted across all police forces from April2002. NCRS, in combination with increasingpublic confidence in reporting crime, has ledto the recording of more offences in someareas. As a result, much crime is now beingrecorded which was not previously registeredand monitored, allowing the police torespond effectively to areas of greatestconcern. These developments mean thatwhile overall crime levels have fallensubstantially, the proportion of thoserecorded by the police has risen.16

2.17 Policing in England and Wales must accordinglybe responsive both to levels of crime and to thefactors which contribute to them. The policereform programme must enable rather thaninhibit such responsive policing in order tomaximise the ability of the police to spot newcrime and social trends and respond quickly andeffectively to them. Community intelligence,supported by the National Intelligence Model andup to date modern policing methods such as realtime data, is fundamental and, to be fullyresponsive, the police service must work closelywith the communities it serves. That is why ourplans for further reform of the police service, asset out in the remainder of this paper, focus onhow the police can develop and encourage thetype of neighbourhood policing which can helpcontinue to bring down crime, while tacklingpeople’s fears and insecurities effectively.

Increasing the responsiveness andcustomer service of the policeNeighbourhood Policing

2.18 Focused local policing, with a community whichis genuinely engaged, is essential to fighting crimeand building a stronger society. A community thatfeels it is part of the solution can worksuccessfully with its local policing team to play areal part in reducing crime and anti-socialbehaviour. That is why the Government iscommitted to providing effective, accessibleneighbourhood policing to deliver increasedconfidence and security. The pledge forcommunity support officers to be available inevery town and city by 2008 to complement thework of police officers is a part of this. But

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16 It is estimated that the crimes counted in 2002/2003 were 10% higher than they would have been under pre-NCRS recording,particularly in relation to violent crimes against the person, reflecting a change in recording practice as opposed to a real increasein crime.


effective neighbourhood policing is about morethan just more ‘bobbies on the beat’. It is aboutdedicated resources for neighbourhoods, whichare used to respond to neighbourhood levelpriorities. Central to this is engagement withcommunities, with a focus on public involvementnot only in identifying problems but inprioritising action and shaping and participatingin solutions. Neighbourhood policing is whatcommunities want, as was made clear in responseto ‘Policing: Building Safer CommunitiesTogether’,17 and we expect to see forces andauthorities continue to adopt the neighbourhoodpolicing approach considered in detail inChapter Three.

Customer service

2.19 A necessary first step towards this approach – aswell as being of fundamental importance in itsown right – is creating a more customer-focusedpolice service, in which members of the publicfeel satisfaction and confidence. If people feelconfidence in the police they are more likely tobe prepared to help them, for example by actingas a witness. They are also more likely to activelyengage in the fight against crime.

2.20 Compared with some other professions, thepolice continue to be held in high regard – thehighest of all of the Criminal Justice Systemagencies. However, despite the fact that policenumbers are now at historically high levels, publicsatisfaction with policing – while still high overall– is declining. In 2002-03, 75% of people felt that

the police in their area did a good job,compared with 82% and 92% in 1992 and 1982respectively.19 And, unlike services such ashospitals and schools, when people have contactwith the police, their confidence in the servicedeclines. This is a worrying situation given thekey role that the police play within communities.

2.21 It is particularly worrying in its application tovictims and witnesses.19 Evidence shows, notsurprisingly, that how the police respond tovictims and witnesses determines whether or notthey continue to engage with the criminal justiceprocess. Getting this right is therefore vital notonly to increasing the satisfaction of victims andwitnesses but also in bringing more offences tojustice. There has been a strong commitmentboth nationally and locally to improving theCriminal Justice System for victims and witnessesand much progress has been made. But clearlythere is much more still to be done to ensure thatthe police provide the high quality service whichvictims and witnesses rightly expect.

2.22 The Government is committed, therefore, toimproving public satisfaction and confidence inthe police, including that of victims andwitnesses, wherever and whenever contact takesplace. In order to be effective, the police need tobe able to perform their duties with the activeco-operation, not just consent, of localcommunities. This means exercising these dutiesfairly and effectively. Use of the police powers tostop and search in a way in which communitieshave trust and confidence is a critical case in point.

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17 Policing: Building Safer Communities Together – Summary of Consultation Responses – available at www.policereform.gov.uk

18 British Crime Survey (BCS)

19 Victim satisfaction with the police dropped by 10% between 1994 and 2002 and black and minority ethnic victim satisfaction withthe police is much lower than amongst white respondents.

Stop and SearchThe Government supports the police powersof stop and search and believes them to be animportant tool in the prevention and detectionof crime when used in a targeted andintelligence-led way. The Government is clearthat these powers must also be applied in theleast bureaucratic way possible. However,coupled with this is the need to bring greateraccountability, openness and transparency tothis area of policing and to maintain the trustand confidence of communities in the powersof stop and search. That is why the HomeSecretary has set an end date of 1st April 2005by which all forces must be recording stops – arequirement which arises from Recommendation61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report.

The Government has set up a Stop and SearchAction Team to ensure both that the use ofstop and search powers is fair and as effectiveas possible in the prevention and detection ofcrime, and that the powers are being usedproportionately. The team has been taskedwith bringing about practical change on theground by reducing the unequal use of stopand search in relation to different groups ofthe population and increasing communityconfidence in this police power. As part of itswork programme, the Stop and Search ActionTeam has commissioned research into thefairness of police practices, targeting anddifferent groups’ use of public space. Thisresearch will be used to inform policyproposals on measuring disproportionality.The Stop and Search Manual, for use by thepolice service and police authorities, will bepublished in Spring 2005.

2.23 Improving public satisfaction and confidence alsomeans doing more to improve the customer-service provided by the police – how people aretreated when they visit police stations, forexample, or when they telephone the police. Inrecent baseline assessments of forces by HerMajesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary,20 callhandling was ranked second to bottom of thecomponents of policing being inspected and noforces were ranked as excellent. These findings inpart reflect the fact that the police provide theonly 24 hours a day response number. They arenonetheless unsatisfactory. Serious improvementis needed and this, including the development ofnational minimum standards of quality of serviceand the establishment of a single three-digit non-emergency number for accessing local services,is considered in greater detail in Chapter Three ofthis paper.

Community engagement

2.24 Creating a more responsive and customer-focusedpolice service is also integral to the Government’svision of strong, active and empoweredcommunities which, amongst other things, cantake a shared responsibility for preventing andreducing crime. Economic and socialregeneration go hand in hand with bothproviding basic security and building confidencewithin the community to be part of the solution.This includes engaging with people to ensure thebasic security of their homes and cars and raisingpeople’s confidence and therefore preparednessto help the police. But it is also about muchmore. The police must work with localcommunities to tackle local problems and work inpartnership to deliver real change, instilling asense of responsibility and moving away from apassive dependency culture.

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20 The baseline assessment process is a new methodology reflecting the changing environment in which police forces and authoritiesare operating. It is designed to set out comprehensively the strengths of each force and the areas where it should improve. Theassessments are available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmic/ba.htm#summaries


2.25 That is why the Government is committed togiving local people a greater say in determininglocal community safety priorities and buildingtheir capacity and opportunities to participate inreducing crime. In part, this will involvedeveloping and encouraging engagement thatalready exists. Successful burglary reductionschemes, for example, have tended to includeresidents as stakeholders and effectivecommunity engagement. Special constables are avery real example of active citizens, offering theirtime and skills to improve local safety.Neighbourhood Watch, which the Government iscommitted to strengthening and revitalising, playsa key role in crime prevention. And there arealready new ways of working with communities –such as Street Leaders in Southwark andcommunity ‘guardians’ in Leicestershire –identifiable across the country. However, givinglocal people a greater say will also involveintroducing new methods of engagement, such asgiving people the ability to “trigger” action inresponse to local problems, which are consideredfurther in Chapter Three of this paper.

Southwark Street LeadersThe Southwark Street Leaders scheme is oneof a number of initiatives which seek to makethe borough’s neighbourhoods cleaner andsafer. Set up in 2003, the scheme operates asa partnership between more than 100 localresidents and a team of Southwark Councilsupport staff. Street Leaders volunteer tokeep an eye on the streets they pass throughwhilst going about their day to day lives. Theymake a commitment to report any‘environmental crimes’ and eye-sores such asdog mess, graffiti and fly-tipping to thecouncil, which then ensures that the problemgets dealt with quickly.

Building a modernised policeworkforce

2.26 The key measure of reform and indicator ofsuccess for a public service must always bewhether or not the public itself sees and feels adifference. However, whether the police servicefeels that improvements have been made is alsoimportant. Building a modernised policeworkforce is central to this. It is also integral tothe delivery of the responsive, customer-focusedpolicing described above.

2.27 Much progress has already been made. The totalpolice workforce now stands at nearly 225,000,compared with 192,000 in March 2000, and theserecord resources are increasingly being deployedto boost the proportion of time which skilled,trained police officers can spend on frontlinepolicing. The Government and the police servicehave, for example, improved the status, trainingand legal framework for police staff in order toenhance their ability and ease the burden onpolice officers. An increasing number of civilianstaff are undertaking station-based tasks such ascase preparation, which would previously havebeen allocated to officers. We have introducedmore flexible pay and conditions. And we havegone some way to reducing red tape, with over7,700 forms now obsolete across all 43 forces.

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These changes will help the Government to meetits commitment to free up the equivalent of atleast 12,000 officers to the frontline by 2007-08.21

2.28 However, although progress has been made, theGovernment realises that more radical change isneeded if the police service is to be enabled tobuild a truly modernised police workforce. Theservice and the Government must do more, forexample, to eradicate unnecessary bureaucracywithin the service. Further training anddevelopment for the whole police workforce isvital if we are to achieve the culture changenecessary to introduce a truly modern andresponsive police service. And we remainparticularly interested in the greaterempowerment and development ofpolice leaders at Basic Command Unit level.

2.29 One of the biggest challenges which we face, asthe “Secret Policeman” documentary showed onlytoo clearly, is rooting out racism and creating agenuinely open and diverse police service. Thereis no place for racism or any other form ofdiscrimination in a modern and responsiveservice. Eradicating this involves not onlyidentifying and removing discrimination withinthe police service but also actively promotingdiversity within the service so that it can mirror,and draw strength from, the diversity of thecommunities which it polices. This, along withour other proposals to build a more modernpolice workforce, is considered further in ChapterFour of this paper.

Ensuring effective policing from localto national level

2.30 At the heart of our reform programme is thedesire to create a more responsive and customer-

focused police service. However, if we are to fullysucceed in achieving this we must also ensurethat we have the right national infrastructure,organisation, resources, policing methods andlegal framework for the police to fight crime at alllevels, including the national and internationalthreats posed by organised crime and terrorism.This should be seen in the context of anincreasingly complex and insecure world, whosechallenges must be met if we are to create andmaintain a safe and secure society. The growth oforganised crime and the changing terrorist threathave demanded a significant shift in the waywe operate.

Terrorism

2.31 Clearly terrorism is not a new concept. It is,however, qualitatively and quantitatively differentin nature to the past, as ACPO highlighted in theirNational Strategic Assessment published in May2004.22 The nature of the threat has changedsince the September 11 attacks: it is now not onlyfrom established groups with clearly definedtargets, but also from loose-knit networks ofindividuals with a far broader agenda. We nowface international terrorists with a high degree ofloyalty to their cause, intent on causing masscasualties and willing to mount suicide attacks,which means policing methods can no longercount on the terrorist wanting to escapeunharmed. The Al Qaeda terrorism network, forexample, may strike anywhere, at anytime andusing any means. Terrorism remains, therefore,one of the most challenging crimes facing policeforces nationally. As we made clear in the HomeOffice Strategic Plan, doing everything possible toprevent a major act of terrorism on UK soil is thesingle biggest responsibility for the Home Office,the Security Service and the police.

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21 Confident Communities in a Secure Britain – page 65.

22 Available at www.acpo.police.uk


2.32 That is why the Government has put a largeamount of resources and effort into the fightagainst terrorism. An additional £330 million wasprovided for counter-terrorism and policing inthe 2002 budget. There will be an extra 1,000 staffin the Security Service by 2008. And there hasbeen a significant expansion of Special Branches,with an additional £90 million of fundingallocated for 2005. We have also undertaken amajor overhaul of protective security andresilience arrangements; set up the AssetRecovery Agency, with tough powers to seizeassets from organised criminals; and toughenedour laws to give the police the powers they need,including extending the time available to questionterrorist suspects from 7 to 14 days, which hasalready proven its worth.

2.33 So, much has already been done – but we cannotrelax our efforts if we are to defeat the ongoingterrorist threat. The consultation paper publishedin February 2004, in which we set out some ideason how to modernise and broaden further ouranti-terrorism laws, should be seen in thiscontext.23 The same is so of the continuedregionalisation and co-ordination of SpecialBranches to match the expansion of the SecurityService. On top of this, we will be making it moredifficult for terrorists to use fraudulent identitiesthrough our plan to introduce biometric identitycards by 2008. Together with our investment inhigh-tech border controls, this will complementthe tough laws which have already deterredterrorists from using the UK as a base.

Organised crime

2.34 Organised crime has also become increasinglydeveloped and sophisticated, again fuelled by thechanging world in which we live. The use of newtechnologies such as the internet creates newcriminal opportunities like viruses, hacking anddenial of computer service, as well as makingscams, fraud and trade in illegal goods cheaperand more effective to carry out on a national andinternational basis. These new technologies alsoenable crimes such as paedophilia and peopletrafficking to be carried to new levels of speedand sophistication. Increased travel and migrationand more mobile communities have alsocontributed to this growing sophistication.Organised criminals have, for example, takenadvantage of easier travel to bring in more Class Adrugs to feed a core group of drug users whosechaotic lives cause crime and anti-social behaviour.As ACPO highlighted in their National StrategicAssessment published in May 2004, the ability oforganised criminals to adapt and respond toopportunities and threats make them hard to tackle;the law enforcement response needs to keep pace.

2.35 In response, we have already announced ourintention to create the Serious Organised CrimeAgency (SOCA) by 2006. This will be agroundbreaking new national organisationbringing together some 5,000 law enforcementagents and specialists, who have up to nowworked in a number of separate organisations, inorder to stay one step ahead of organisedcriminals. The challenge in terms of policing willbe to ensure that the structures and mechanismswe have in place at police force level will dovetailseamlessly with SOCA, while maintaining crucialconnections and collaboration both upwards andbetween forces.

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23 Available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism/reports/other/html

Structures and standards

2.36 The Government is very clear that police forcesneed to be given sufficient flexibility to deliver onlocal priorities. The new Public Service Agreementtarget from April 2005 to reduce crime by afurther 15%, and by more in high crime areas,from 2002-03 to 2007-08 should be seen in thiscontext. This broader target will give police forcesand authorities, together with their communitiesand partners, greater flexibility to target thecrimes that are of the most pressing local concernand which collectively can achieve the sharedgoal to reduce crime. At the same time, thisflexibility has to be set within a context in whichthe Government remains responsible for settingnational standards, priorities and systems toensure the overall effectiveness of policing in thiscountry. The need for a framework and structureto achieve this is substantiated by the BichardReport into the Soham murders, which clearlyindicated that there is more to do in managingintelligence between forces, and is consideredfurther in Chapter Five of this paper.24

2.37 Chapter Five also considers the need for thepolice service to be answerable to thecommunities it serves and the importance of thisin relation to responsiveness. Home Officeresearch undertaken with the Association ofPolice Authorities indicates a general consensusthat the public does not have a sufficient say indecisions about policing and that people wantbetter communication, information andinvolvement.25 The vast majority of peopleinvolved in the research had not heard of police

authorities. The few that had heard of themgenerally did not know what they were or whattheir role was. Responses to Policing: BuildingSafer Communities Together conveyed a similarmessage, revealing a strong desire from allquarters to ensure that the police were morevisible and accessible, to give local people agreater say in determining local community safetypriorities and to strengthen accountability inpolicing. Current arrangements need to bebolstered and simplified to ensure that the publicis clear about who is responsible for what, howwell they are performing and how they can beheld to account. The proposals outlined in bothChapters Three and Five seek to achieve theseobjectives.

So we need to go further2.38 Across the public sector we are looking at

fundamental reform of how services are deliveredto the citizen in a way which combines choice,excellence and equity. We are not looking for“one size fits all” solutions. We will continue toinvest in capacity and keep a focus on driving upstandards and performance.

2.39 Our aim is to put an entirely different dynamic inplace to drive public services: driven by the user –in the case of policing and community safety, bythe law-abiding citizen. The remainder of thispolicy paper sets out our specific proposals to putthe law-abiding citizen at the heart of our reformprogramme. By getting this right we can all playour part in ensuring that the police service of the21st century is equipped to meet the needs ofthose it serves.

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24 The Government is coordinating a programme of implementation in response to the Bichard Report. Work on this is being takenforward as a matter of urgency with the aim of being able to demonstrate substantial progress by early 2005.

25 The Role of Public Authorities in Public Engagement, published 4 November 2003 – available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds


Chapter Three: A newrelationship between thepolice and the public –building trust and confidence


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Chapter Three: A new relationshipbetween the police and the public –building trust and confidence

What we want to achieve:

• accessible and responsive neighbourhood policing that is capable of dealingwith 21st century challenges of crime and anti-social behaviour across allforces;

• every community to benefit from this style of policing and to know who isresponsible for their area with dedicated policing teams in place and 25,000community support officers and wardens by 2008;

• a new culture of customer responsiveness within the police service, withguaranteed standards of customer service whenever anyone has contact withthe police; and

• real opportunities for local communities to have a say in local policing priorities.

Key proposals:

• programme to roll-out neighbourhood policing across all forces and provide training and skills for policeofficers and staff, together with a new Neighbourhood Policing Fund;

• continuing drive on reducing bureaucracy to help free up the equivalent of 12,000 officers to thefrontline by 2008;

• all forces to implement customer service standards by 2006;

• National Policing Improvement Agency to drive customer service culture in all forces;

• changes in the way police performance is measured to reflect the priorities of the public and theirviews about police services;

• single non-emergency telephone number and strategy to improve call-handling;

• a requirement on the police and other agencies to work directly with local people to identify and tacklethe problems that are most important to them; and

• the right for local communities to trigger action by the relevant agencies to deal with acute orpersistent problems of crime and anti-social behaviour.

A new relationship between thepolice and the public

3.1 The Government’s aim is to put people at thecentre of public services. With increasinginvestment, the public rightly has increasingexpectations of the quality of the services itreceives. Providers of services across the publicand private sectors are facing mounting externalpressures from a more demanding consumerculture and an environment where communitiesare becoming increasingly diverse, complex andmobile. Policing is no exception.

3.2 Added to these pressures for change is the placeoccupied by the police service in our shared ideaof community. The local police serve as a focusfor communities’ sense of safety and security. Aswell as those who have direct contact with thepolice, everyone benefits from the servicesprovided by the police on a daily basis. As suchthe police service has a unique value andimportance to the public.

3.3 But the relationship between the public and thepolice is not only critical to people’s feelings ofsafety, fear of crime or confidence. It is alsoessential to the continued effectiveness of thepolice in tackling crime and disorder and bringingoffenders to justice. Bringing about saferand more secure communities is dependent onthe co-operation and support of members ofthe public, for example, by people providinginformation leading to the arrest of criminalsinvolved in dealing drugs and gun crime andacting as witnesses when cases come to court.Local communities are often best placed to findthe most appropriate and long-term solutions toproblems of crime and anti-social behaviour.

3.4 Forging a new relationship between the policeand the public – in which there is activecollaboration between the police, their partnersand citizens in the delivery of policing services –is the underlying principle on which ourproposals are based. We recognise that effectivepolicing will only be sustained over the long termwhen it is citizen-focused – responsive topeople’s needs and performed as a sharedundertaking with the active involvement of thepublic. But in order to engage and be involved,people must have a basic confidence that theyare guaranteed high standards of service; thatpolicing in their area reflects and responds totheir needs; and that they have genuineopportunities to become involved on their ownterms. The Government recognises that there isalready much good work underway in a numberof forces that is proving successful. We want tobuild on this and bring all forces up to the samehigh standard.

3.5 Tackling crime and reassuring the public go handin hand – to pursue one at the expense of theother may work in the short term but over thelong term is unsustainable. We want a situationwhere a two-way exchange of informationbetween the police and the public leads toimprovements in crime reduction and everincreasing levels of trust and confidence. Thereare real wins here for the police, the public andsociety in general.

Neighbourhood policing fortoday’s world

3.6 Revitalising the policing of neighbourhoods fortoday’s world is central to the Government’sapproach to improving policing in this country.Despite year on year reductions in crime, thepublic’s fear of crime remains too high. Manypeople are, understandably, not convinced that

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Guardians in Leicestershire

The approach to policing in Leicestershire is based upon the philosophy of ‘right people, right numbers, rightplace’. The ‘right people’ starts with a clear understanding of the fundamental policing role as community‘guardians’, where the emphasis is upon relationship building, listening and problem solving.

Every police officer is given their own unique part of Leicestershire to oversee as ‘guardian’, the size andnature of which depends upon local issues but could be an estate, shopping area or village. Although routinedemand means they cannot be present all the time, the ‘micro-beat’ is a constant default which they mustreturn to and oversee. Promotion, movement into specialist departments and bonuses are increasinglydependent on an officer’s impact on improving the quality of life in their area.

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crime is going down if they do not see andexperience effective and responsive policingthemselves – in their neighbourhoods andcommunities; and when they have contact withthe police. A positive experience of policing isalso vital to building people’s trust andconfidence in the police service itself.

3.7 But unlike previous community policinginitiatives, the new style of neighbourhoodpolicing being advanced by the Government inpartnership with the police service will not justbe about delivering public reassurance, asimportant as that is. Excellent police forces todaycan and should be about reassuring the publicand preventing and detecting crime. Andimportantly for the Government, its approach toneighbourhood policing involves harnessing theenergies of local communities and partners toexchange information and work together tocontinue to reduce crime and anti-socialbehaviour and improve the number of crimesdetected and offences brought to justice.Establishing effective and responsiveneighbourhood policing is essential to makingthis happen.

How will this approach toneighbourhood policing operate inpractice?

3.8 The Government recognises that a number ofpolice forces in England and Wales are alreadyputting in place what is needed for a successfulneighbourhood policing approach. We want tobuild on this good practice.

3.9 The critical starting point for the Government isforces having dedicated teams of police officersand community support officers, working inconcert with wardens and other members of whatis sometimes referred to as the ‘extended policefamily’ to provide a visible and accessiblepresence in communities. Ongoing workforcemodernisation pilot schemes are providingvaluable evidence of the impact so-called ‘mixedeconomy’ teams can have in neighbourhoods andbeyond. We want such teams to develop agenuine sense of being responsible for and‘owning’ their local areas. This means the policeinvolving communities in negotiating prioritiesfor action and, together with partners and thecommunities themselves, finding lasting solutions

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| Building Communities, Beating Crime

Neighbourhood Policing in Merseyside

In April 2001, Merseyside Police introduced a new style of policing in order to re-engage with the public.

Neighbourhood policing redeploys response officers into dedicated teams in each of forty-threeneighbourhoods led by an inspector who is accountable for the policing needs of that community – a minichief constable of the community. The inspector has a team typically consisting of three sergeants andsixteen constables as well as community support officer support.

The aim was to give residents in Merseyside a familiar and reassuring local police service, empoweringcommunities to determine policing priorities. In order to achieve this, the force needed to completely changeits structure and systems, and required a performance focus on public satisfaction and confidence.

In the last three years, crime has not only been reduced, but surveys have shown increases in publicsatisfaction. Robbery has reduced by 25% and vehicle theft has reduced by 24%. Street interview surveyshave shown levels of confidence and satisfaction in the police have risen by 10%.

• dedicated resources for neighbourhoods whichinclude the extended police family, but wherenumbers, staffing mix, skills and powersavailable are appropriate to the particularneeds of the neighbourhood;

• an emphasis on local problem solving withmechanisms in place to identify and respondto neighbourhood level priorities and to drawin additional resources from other levels andpartners where necessary;

• engagement with communities, using a rangeof methods appropriate to the communitiesconcerned;

• a focus on public involvement not only inidentifying problems but in prioritising actionand shaping and participating in solutions,along with police and partners; and

• mechanisms in place to target resources atlocal priorities and to hold police and partnersto account for tackling neighbourhoodproblems.

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to local problems. We talk about this kind ofengagement further in paragraphs 3.45 onwardsbelow. But more than this, we are clear thatneighbourhood policing for today’s world mustbe intelligence-led, which involves the systematicadoption and application of the NationalIntelligence Model. So along with greateraccessibility and responsiveness to people’sconcerns and needs, the roll-out ofneighbourhood policing will mean a moreproactive, problem-orientated approach beingtaken to local issues.

3.10 The Government has been engaged in aprogramme of pilot initiatives and research tounderstand the essential elements of a successfulneighbourhood policing approach. We have alsobeen able to draw on the experience of forcesboth in this country and abroad. Neighbourhoodpolicing will not mean a one-size fits all approach,but we believe that effective models will share thefollowing features:


3.12 To be successful – and to avoid replicating theproblems with previous approaches tocommunity policing – the Government is clearthat its approach to neighbourhood policing mustnot be seen as some kind of bolt-on or distinctactivity by police forces. Effective neighbourhoodlevel policing requires proper integration withother policing functions such as first contact,response, investigation and major crime work. Itwill therefore need the wholesale commitmentof forces to put in place an infrastructure tosupport it.

Government support forneighbourhood policing

3.13 The Government’s ongoing programme of reformis already providing the building blocks for thekind of neighbourhood policing approach set outin this paper. We have, for example, introducedthe role of community support officer and madeother changes in terms of civilianising policeposts and reducing bureaucracy to free upfrontline officers’ time. The police pay reformsagreed in 2002 provide a way for forces to rewardstaff in particular posts – like community orneighbourhood officers – in order to attract and,crucially, retain people in those important roles –where continuity is vital. We agree with thesentiment expressed by Lord Scarman in his 1981Report on the unrest in Brixton that year aboutenhancing the status of what was then referred toas the beat officer – that they should be seen:

“…not as occupying the bottom of the policepecking-order… but at its apex, in theforefront of the police team.”1

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Neighbourhood policing

3.11 Effective neighbourhood policing is thereforeabout more than satisfying a public desire formore ‘bobbies on the beat’ and cannot be seen asan activity that stands in isolation from the rest ofpolicing. To be successful, neighbourhoodpolicing needs to apply the same intelligence-ledapproach that has been so successful at tacklingvolume crime and serious organised crime.People who are living within communitiesblighted by violent or drug-related crime knowthat it is not just ‘quality of life issues’ thatconcern local communities. There is not a quickfix. Their priorities often link directly to policingissues which cross force boundaries such as drugimportation and trafficking. Many of the problemsfacing communities have existed for decades andwill take time to resolve. But putting in placededicated neighbourhood teams can build uprelationships of trust with local communities overtime. These teams are ideally placed to monitorissues and tensions within the community. We seean essential part of their role to be gatheringcommunity intelligence, which must be fed intothe National Intelligence Model process.

1 The Brixton Disorders 10-12 April 1981 – Report of an Inquiry by the Rt.Hon. The Lord Scarman OBE (Cmnd. 8427) – p.90.

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valued and trained in the same way asother specialists within the police service;

• support the roll-out of neighbourhoodpolicing with substantial investmentthrough the new Neighbourhood PolicingFund. We will deliver 25,000 CSOs andwardens by 2008; and

• run a national community policingTOGETHER Academy Programme inMarch 2005 to ensure police officersand their CSO colleagues have the tools,the know-how and the backing to tackleanti-social behaviour in the communitiesthey serve.

Investing in neighbourhood policing3.17 The Government has already injected £50m of

new money this year to provide what is, in effect,the first round of the Neighbourhood PolicingFund. This will mean an additional 2,000 CSOswill be recruited by the end of March 2005. Wewill deliver 25,000 CSOs and wardens by 2008.Forces will receive continuation funding and willbe required to maintain police officer numbers tobe eligible for Neighbourhood Policing Fundmoney. The Fund will pay for existing CSOs andfor measures being funded already to increase thecapacity of the special constabulary. Beyond this,the Neighbourhood Policing Fund is intended tobe a flexible investment fund to support theimplementation of neighbourhood policing.Unlike the Crime Fighting Fund, the additionalmoney in the Neighbourhood Policing Fund willnot simply be used on a “money for people”basis. Police authorities and forces will be invitedto set out their plans for the implementation ofneighbourhood policing, including a commitmentto the number of CSOs they will recruit. But howthey use money from the NeighbourhoodPolicing Fund to achieve this will be up to them.

3.14 But Lord Scarman saw the beat officer as ageneralist position. We believe that in today’senvironment, the role of a neighbourhood officershould be seen as a highly skilled, specialist one –which needs and deserves proper training andsupport. As we set out in this paper, whilst theGovernment sees neighbourhood policing beingcarried out most effectively by ‘mixed’ teams, weare clear that it is the police constable who willcontinue to play the pivotal, problem-solving rolewithin them.

3.15 As we note above, some police forces havealready committed themselves to neighbourhoodpolicing and they, and their communities, arestarting to feel the impact. But elsewhere,effective and responsive neighbourhood policingis not business as usual. We want communitiesacross the country to benefit from this style ofpolicing and believe that, in addition toinvestment, the spread of neighbourhoodpolicing requires the development of asupportive infrastructure and an understandingof new tactics. Effective management of a widerange of resources to meet local needs, forexample, is key to ensuring the successful andsustainable implementation of the kind ofdedicated neighbourhood policing approach setout in this paper.

3.16 In terms of support, the Government willtherefore:

• set out joint guidance on neighbourhoodpolicing for forces with the Association ofChief Police Officers and the NationalCentre for Policing Excellence early in2005;

• put in place a programme to help forcesimplement neighbourhood policing andmake sure that the highly skilled role ofneighbourhood officers is recognised,


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Neighbourhood Policing Fund

“NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING CONTRACT”• Set out in local policing plan and local area

agreements• Signed up by Home Office, police authority/force,

BCU commanders, local partners• Minimum police and CSO numbers• What will be delivered and who will deliver it• Outcomes and agreed targets (e.g. reassurance

and crime reduction at force/local level)• Delivery confirmed by, PPAF, efficiency plans and

front line policing measures

HOME OFFICE FUNDS• Crime Fighting Fund• CSO funding• Special constabulary

funds• Workforce

modernisation• New money

NEIGHBOURHOODPOLICING FUND

POTENTIAL MATCHED FUNDS• Neighbourhood Renewal

Fund• Safer and Stronger

Communities• Business Improvement

Districts• Sponsorship• National Lottery

LOCAL PARTNERS• Police• Individual local authorities• Local Strategic Partnerships• Businesses• Crime and Disorder

Reduction Partnerships• Accredited community

bodies

PROPOSAL• Sets out how reassurance contract will be delivered through workforce modernisation, leading to increased front

line capacity used to support creation of neighbourhood policing teams (police officers, specials, CSOs,empowered police staff) supported by volunteers, Neighbourhood Watch, community guardians.

• Maintaining police officer and CSO numbers a pre-requIsite• Police authority/force manage preparations of bid and submit it to Home Office on behalf of partners• Bid at force level but constructed from proposals generated at BCU level• Bid needs local community support. Evidence of support from LSP, local authority, CDRP, as appropriate.

Partners must sign up to bid along with relevant BCU commanders, force and authority• Matched funding required from community partners or explanation of why there is no matched funding

HOMEOFFICE

3.18 The Government will set out the full detailsof requirements for applications to theNeighbourhood Policing Fund in 2006/07 and2007/08 in mid 2005.

Reducing bureaucracy3.19 As part of our drive on neighbourhood policing

and supporting the development of a moreresponsive police service, the Governmentremains committed to reducing the administrativeburdens and eliminating unecessary paperworkand inefficient working practices that keepofficers away from the communities they serve.We want to empower officers and equip them tospend time in their core roles – tackling crimeand providing reassurance to the public. We arealready making progress:

• over 7,700 forms have been made obsoleteacross all 43 forces;

• all 43 forces now undertake video identityparades to speed up the identification ofsuspects. It is estimated that it takes 66% lesstime for a uniformed officer to carry out avideo identity parade than a live one. Theygreatly reduce bureaucracy, are welcomed byforces and, over five years, will represent anoverall saving of £143m to the police service;

• over 72,000 police officers and staff are nowusing the new generation of Airwave radiosoperationally in 40 forces, and 20 forces areusing mobile information. This allows officersto cut down on the amount of time spentreturning to the station and is making asignificant difference to everyday policing;

• the national roll out of the penalty notice fordisorder scheme was completed in April 2004.Over 30,000 such notices had been issued by

the end of September 2004, each onerepresenting a file for court which did not haveto be prepared. It is estimated that around 90minutes is saved per ticket. The scheme isbeing extended to build on its success. Afurther 10 offences, including criminal damageand theft, have been added, with CSOs beingable to issue penalty notices for disorder forall the new offences, except theft. The schemeis also being extended to tackle disorderlyand nuisance offending by juveniles. From20 January 2005, 16 and 17 year olds will beable to be issued with penalty notices fordisorder. We have pased legislation to enablethe scheme to be extended to juveniles aged10 to 15 years of age and pilots are expected tostart later in 2004;

• 198 Livescan Units, which enable electronicfingerprint images to be taken from peopleinstantly, are in use in 35 forces;

• we are investing £13m over two years into 10pilot projects to test out new ways of usingpolice staff to carry out station-based jobstraditionally performed by officers. Forexample, we have invested £2.5 million in newinvestigation teams in Surrey which willinclude administrators and investigativeofficers, allowing detective constables to doless routine paperwork and concentrate onwork which is better suited to their skills,experience and training; and

• the recommendations of the new SentencingGuidelines Council, if implemented, willreduce sentence reductions only for those whoplead guilty at the courtroom door with verylarge potential benefits in terms of reduced filepreparation where that leads to earlier guiltypleas; and

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• on 1 September 2004, a Policing BureaucracyGateway began to operate at the Home Officeand the Association of Chief Police Officers.This identifies, challenges and influences thedemands made by new policies, legislation andprocedures that affect the police service. Wewill encourage individual forces in parallel toset up their own gateways to influence thedemands imposed locally.

3.20 The Government is providing practical assistanceto forces in their work to reduce bureaucracythrough the appointment, in January 2004, of anassistant chief constable whose responsibility is tovisit forces to spread good practice, raiseawareness and, where necessary, challengeexisting practices. We are setting up anactionline for officers to raise any questionsthey have relating to bureaucracy. This willhelp to engage frontline officers in the work thatis being undertaken nationally in this area. We willensure that officers’ ideas are followed up and wewill publish the outcome. We have also set up anannual Reducing Bureaucracy Awards Schemewith the Police Federation, which encouragesfrontline officers to come up with suggestions forreducing bureaucracy. The first awards ceremonytook place at the Police Federation Conference inMay 2004.

3.21 Reducing bureaucracy is making an importantcontribution to increasing the time available forfrontline duties. This is crucial in terms of gettingofficers out into communities. Increasing theproportion of time which police officers spend onfrontline duties – a priority on which the policeservice has worked with us for some time – coulddeliver a substantial proportion of the overall 3%efficiency target set by the 2004 Spending Reviewsettlement. Exploiting new technology, moreeffective deployment of officers and moreeffective use of police staff will also help toincrease the amount of frontline policing. Otherefficiency gains will be delivered through moreefficient working and commercial practices.Reform of the Home Office will also help toreduce burdens on the service that can detractfrom efficiency. Like our overall programme itself,this is reform for a purpose – which is abouthelping to make policing more effective for allour communities.

3.22 The Home Office is working in partnership withthe Association of Police Authorities and theAssociation of Chief Police Officers in a newefficiency implementation group to identify andimplement the best ways to increase value formoney in policing. Greater value for money willenable the service to devote the greatest possiblelevel of resources to protecting and serving thepublic. Police forces and authorities are requiredto include in their annual policing plans efficiencyplans which set out the value for money gainsthey intend to achieve. We expect them, aspart of their planning process, to considerwhat action they can take to minimisebureaucratic burdens. This is in line withthe duty on police authorities to maintainan effective and efficient police force fortheir area.

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3.25 The Government sees its role as putting in placea framework that will drive and support changes.But we are clear that these need to be led anddeveloped at local level by police forces, policeauthorities and their local partners who will needto embrace a cultural shift towards being moreopen and accessible to the public and be willingto listen and adopt new approaches to delivermore effective local services.

A new culture of customer serviceand responsiveness

3.26 Investment in record levels of police numbersand the hard work police forces, policeauthorities and their partners have done toreduce crime in recent years will be underminedif people’s confidence is damaged by a poorexperience when they have contact with thepolice. Last year, 44% of the public had someform of direct contact with the police. Nearly athird of the public initiated that contactthemselves – not only victims and witnesses ofcrime, but also those seeking advice andinformation. Research has shown3 that personalexperience, and that of family and friends, is themost important influence on public views of thepolice and that the experience of contact willshape public views of the police service for a longtime to come. So in order to help secure publicsupport and confidence, it is vital that people’sexperience of contact with the police is a goodone – wherever that contact takes place.

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3.23 Underpinning our approach to neighbourhoodpolicing, the Government sees the need toimprove the responsiveness and customer serviceculture of all police forces in England and Wales.Our proposals for making improvements are setout below.

A more responsive service forthe public

3.24 As we said at the outset of this Chapter, theGovernment is clear that providers of publicservices, including the police, must ensure thatservices are citizen-focused – designed aroundthe people who use and receive their services notthe professionals who work within them. Theexperience of other organisations has shown thatsuch a change can deliver improved outcomesand efficiencies. There is evidence, for example,that witnesses who are more satisfied with theirexperience of the Criminal Justice System aremore likely to be prepared to give evidence in thefuture.2 Many forces have found that focusing onthe needs of the people who use their servicescan also reduce bureaucracy and improveefficiency. It does not necessarily follow that thereis a cost to making services more responsive topeople’s needs. Indeed making this change canbring considerable benefits. Whilst much work isalready underway within forces to make theirservices more citizen-focused, making this‘business as usual’ will require significant culturaland organisational change, as well as thedevelopment of new skills and capabilities withinthe workforce.

2 ‘Public Satisfaction with Police Contact’, Bulletins 8 & 9 2004, Australian Centre for Policing Research.

3 ‘Public Confidence in the Criminal Justice System’ – Home Office RDS Research Findings 221, 2004; Ben Page, Rhonda Wake andAshley James.


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3.27 How people rate the contact they have had withthe police has a strong impact on perceptions oflocal police performance in general. Unlike thehealth service and education, the more contactpeople have with the police the less satisfied theyare likely to be with the service4. Recent figures5

show police were more likely to be rated as doinga good job by people who had no contact withthem over the previous year than those who did.Those who have positive perceptions of theircontact with the police are significantly more likelyto have a favourable impression of the police’sperformance in their local area than those whoare dissatisfied with their police contact.

3.28 But there is nothing inevitable about thisrelationship. Forces which are makingimprovements to the customer service they

provide are seeing rising satisfaction as a result.For example, Lancashire Constabulary discoveredthat by finding out what is important to thepublic when they contact them and making smallchanges in the way they do things as a result, theycould greatly increase the satisfaction of thepeople who used their services. Simply by notmaking promises they could not keep – by tellingnon-emergency callers how long it would take foran officer to arrive for example – satisfaction hasincreased. This shows that getting the quality ofservice provided to the public right matters.

Guaranteed standards of service tothe public

3.29 We want to see this responsiveness to customerneeds replicated everywhere and ensure that allmembers of the public have a consistent, high

Using market analysis tools to reduce crime

Avon and Somerset Police wanted to reduce instances of burglary by increasing the public’s participation intheir own safety through Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

The force used a market analysis tool (ACORN) designed to help organisations understand the needs ofdistinct communities within any geographic area.

They imported postcodes for their Neighbourhood Watch coordinators and profiled them to understand howeffective the scheme is at attracting vulnerable groups. The resulting social make-up was then comparedwith those ACORN types at greater risk of been burgled.

The force also imported its Beat Areas into the system to understand the incident rates with each area andthe resident ACORN types.

As a result, the force realised that the majority of participants in Neighbourhood Watch schemes did notmatch the ACORN profile of those groups most at risk from burglaries. The profile developed for high riskburglary groups has enabled the force to target resources much more effectively and build betterrelationships with the local community through a better awareness of their individual needs.

4 Contacting the Police – Customer Satisfaction Survey, Research carried out by MORI for Office of Public Service Reform, August 2003.

5 British Crime Survey, Supplementary Volume Jan 2004.

quality of service that meets their needs wheneverthey are in contact with the police. This should beirrespective of where, how or for what reason thatcontact takes place. We have been working withthe Association of Chief Police Officers todevelop national standards that will set outthe quality of service the police service iscommitted to providing to the publicwhenever they have contact with them. Everyforce will have these standards in place bythe end of 2006 and will agree in a ‘Contract’with their communities how these can bebuilt on locally, to reflect the particular needsof the communities they serve.

3.30 As a result of implementing the standards it willbe easier for the public to contact the police, theway that initial enquiries from the public are dealtwith will be improved and victims will be keptbetter informed about the progress of their case.Standards will also cover the way people canexpect to be treated by police staff and ensurethat all forces have a proper system in place tomonitor the quality of the service provided, andact on any feedback received from the publicabout their experience of contact.

3.31 The Government believes that improving therelationship with the public will be as beneficialto the police as it will to the public. As a result ofimplementing the customer service standards,frontline staff will be better supported to dealeffectively with the public, forces will have a moreaccurate understanding of demand patterns,improved systems in place to manage demandand a better flow of intelligence from the public.All of this will help forces target resourcesmore effectively.

3.32 The Government is aware that forces are alreadytaking steps to improve the customer service theyprovide and there are many good initiativesunderway. But we want to ensure that all forces arebrought up to the level of the best. This willrequire a systematic approach on the part of forcesto understanding the needs of the people who usetheir services and redesigning and deliveringservices with those needs in mind. This approachrecognises that good customer service is not justabout being polite to people – it is aboutemploying the methods that other private andpublic sector organisations use because it makesgood business sense. As part of a process of

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Using customer feedback to improve services

Staffordshire Police have taken a systematic approach to improve their call handling. As part of a customerfocus exercise they are contacting the 400 people who are the most frequent users of their switchboardservice. They are finding out who they are, their reasons for calling and whether the force can help improvetheir access to services, for example whether they need further advice or help from another source.

Alongside this they are managing demand through the introduction of a non-emergency number and acampaign to target misuse of the 999 system and manage public expectations. They have launched a publicinformation campaign which includes a list of the top ten inappropriate reasons for calling 999.


change, the Government believes that policeforces will need to put in place the techniques thathave been developed in other sectors, such as:

• an evidence based understanding of demandpatterns and the needs of users and widerpublic – knowing not making assumptions;

• setting clear expectations for staff on thequality of service to be provided;

• quality control – follow up and monitoring ofstandards that reflect public needs;

• systems and business processes in place tosupport a citizen focused service;

• a performance culture that focuses on publicsatisfaction and recognises the quality issues aswell as the things that are easier to measure;

• use of marketing and communicationstechniques to support the development of abetter relationship with the public and manageexpectations.

Improving access to services3.33 We want to see increasing choice in the way that

services are accessed by the public. Theguaranteed service standards that we refer to inparagraph 3.29 above will include a commitmentto ensure that people are clear about the bestway to contact the police in different situationsand to ensure arrangements to directinappropriate calls to the relevant agency are inplace. Forces will need to build on these locally tocontinue to develop the range of ways the publiccan access services and ensure that these areappropriate to the needs of the communities theyserve. Many forces are now working with partnersto adopt a joint approach to dealing with

problems that require a multi-agency response,for example, the use of multi-agency One StopShops, council offices, post offices, health centresand libraries.

3.34 Police forces have reported year on year increasesin the number of calls they receive from the public– the majority of which are not emergencies, oreven reports of a crime. Many are not about thingsthat the police can deal with alone or even at all,but people have called the police because they donot know which agency or organisation theyshould be contacting or what other help isavailable to them. Sometimes the nature of theproblem means that dealing with it requires thecollaboration of a number of different agenciesand there may not be an easy way to get this tohappen. Not only does this mean that it is takinglonger for the public to find someone who canhelp them, but when people call the police as alast resort it adds to the pressures on the 999system. Frontline officers are often sent to dealwith problems that could have been resolved overthe phone or dealt with by another agency ororganisation much earlier on.

3.35 The Government has made a commitment tointroduce a single non-emergency number, andwe have secured with Ofcom agreement inprinciple to the provision of a universallyapplicable three-digit number. Public consultationhas revealed strong support for the idea.6 We arecurrently considering which range of services thepublic would most benefit from having a singlepoint of access to, and which would alleviate thedemands on public services, particularly policeand local authorities. For example, many callsmade to the police are actually about anti-social

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6 ‘Policing: Building Safer Communities Together’, published 4th November 2003, available at www.policereform.gov.uk

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behaviour – noisy neighbours, abandoned cars,gangs of youths, graffiti and flytipping – and mayrequire actions by local authorities as well as thepolice themselves. Shared access can harnessmore effectively the enforcement powers of boththe police and their partner agencies, to ensurethat the general public receives a more seamlessand satisfactory service.

3.36 The Government will build on the successof the TOGETHER Action Line7 to provide adirect single non-emergency telephone

number for the public which will deal withnon-emergency issues of policing, crimeand anti-social behaviour. Our aim –depending on the results of a feasibility study – isto have the core of the system in place by the endof 2006. Initially this will be able to resolve somecalls over the phone, provide advice on certainmatters and where that cannot be done, directcallers to the right person to speak to. We arescoping how this can be rolled out to directly linkup with forces, local authorities and otherrelevant services when they have the rightsystems in place to do so.

311 – The Chicago Way

In January 1999, Chicago City implemented the 311 system as a “one-stop shopping” centre for access toall city services and non-emergency police services. Chicago residents can now call 311 – 24 hours a day,7 days a week – to report service needs, check the status of previous service requests, obtain informationregarding City programmes or events and file police reports.

Through the 311 system, residents can obtain important non-emergency services quickly and effectivelythrough one central phone number. The system has simplified and shortened the time between a residentreporting a problem and its resolution; it has become an effective management tool, generating real-timereports that help manage staff, track trends, target efficiency needs and maximise resources. For example,during the recent West Nile Virus Outbreak, reports on “Dead Animals” (birds) were used to track the spreadand concentration of the virus. The system has also helped make the City’s 911 emergency system moreefficient by diverting non-emergency calls that could impede the City’s emergency response.

Other areas of improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness include:

• the Department of Sewers has reduced its response time by 83 percent since 311 was launched;

• graffiti complaints are in the top ten of 311 calls, and in two years the city’s Department of Streetsand Sanitation has halved its turnaround time from complaint to cleanup, despite getting far morerequests for service since the institution of 311;

• calls to 911 during a recent period of severe flooding were down by about a third because peoplecalled 311 instead, freeing vital space on the emergency line.

7 TOGETHER Actionline is a helpline for practioners, open every weekday, providing advice and assistance on the tools available totackle anti-social behaviour.


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3.39 Some of this is down to having the rightresources, technology and staffing – havingsufficient capacity to deal with both 999 calls andnon-emergency calls and systems in place toresolve problems over the phone; being able tosee all the information that is relevant to that call– such as whether someone has called about thesame problem many times before – withoutsearching a separate database. But successful call-handling is core not only to the satisfaction ofusers, but also to the effective investigation ofcrime and management of intelligence. As such,training for call handlers needs to equip themwith skills in customer service and thosenecessary to fulfill their critical role in assessingand prioritising calls.

3.37 The issue of non-emergency calls demonstrateshow the better management of public contact isnot just about getting it right for the public but itis also about getting it right for frontline officers.If calls are not assessed and graded correctly andif accurate and relevant information and history isnot captured from callers so that officers have agood picture of the call they are attending, theirjob becomes considerably more difficult.

Improving call handling3.38 Improving the way that calls to the police are

dealt with is a particular priority for the public. Aswe have already noted in this Chapter, people’sfirst contact is particularly important in shapingtheir views of the police service.

Managing demand

Surrey have invested in a new system for managing calls from the public which has been implementedover an 18 month period. The improvements included brigading together call handling (999 and a new non-emergency number) and crime recording procedures, and introducing a new deployment policy.

The improved system has led to an increase in the number that can be dealt with over the phone, fromaround 25% to 45% meaning police officers are freed up to deal with more serious matters. The changeshave also given the force a more accurate picture of demand, better intelligence and improvements in howquickly it can update PNC.

Amongst 999 callers – 53% of overall satisfaction can be explained by just four factors:

• Being taken seriously

• Being able to talk to someone who can actually deal with your problem quickly

• Keeping to promises made

• Being dealt with professionally

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• a thematic inspection on contactmanagement to be carried out during2005 by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofConstabulary (HMIC); and

• a manual of best practice on the mosteffective ways to manage calls from thepublic which will be published followingHMICs inspection.

Training, skills and cultural change3.42 The leadership of managers and chief officers in

valuing customer service and communicating thisto frontline staff will be critical to delivery of anew culture of customer responsiveness. Theactions and behaviour of frontline officers andpublic facing staff are key to maintaining thereputation of the police, and to some extent theCriminal Justice System as a whole. But so too arethe actions and decisions of staff in all levels androles. This requires the building of a culture thatvalues customer service and new skills for all staffwithin the organisation, and which is reflected inthe way that individual performance is assessedand rewarded. The Government sees the newNational Policing Improvement Agency, which wediscuss in Chapter Five of this paper, as having acentral role in promoting this change in culture.

3.40 But getting call handling right for the public isalso about seeing things from the public’s pointof view, understanding what is important to themand building this into how business is done. Whatmakes the difference is not just how quickly a callis picked up but also the quality of service thecaller receives.

3.41 To improve the responsiveness andcustomer service culture across all policeforces, the Government will bring togetherin 2005 a number of projects as part of anational strategy to improve call handling:

• the Association of Chief Police Officers’programme of work to bring all forces upto the same high standard of callhandling, which is due to complete inApril 2005;


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Being responsive to all communities

All members of the public should benefit from an increasingly responsive customer service culture. Forceswill need to further develop their capability to understand and anticipate the needs of the community thatthey serve and to design services that will be capable of meeting those needs.

It is vital that all parts of the community have trust and confidence in the police. And some people mayrequire a different level of support or type of service to others. People with learning disabilities or mentalhealth problems may feel especially vulnerable about crime and their own personal safety. They may feelintimidated when they deal with officers in uniform. Sometimes they might not – or feel that they're not – betaken seriously by the police or other Criminal Justice Agencies. It is sometimes difficult for children or adultswith learning disabilities to speak up about a problem without an advocate or trained person to support them.

The Government wants to ensure that the police better understand how to deal and respond to people withlearning disabilities or mental health problems – including as victims, witnesses or suspects. We would liketo see more done by forces in terms of local awareness raising – whether through getting people involvedwith their local police as volunteers for example or through particular training for officers and staff.

The Government is aware that there are pockets of good practice, for example:

• Northumbria Police is running a pilot mental health awareness course for its officers coveringlegislation, prevention, anger management, victim care and partnership working; and

• the Metropolitan Police Service has published a guide to personal safety and crime – Stay Safe – in aneasy to read format.

The Government established a Learning Disabilities Taskforce following the 2001 White Paper on learningdisability – Valuing People. Its job is to champion the Valuing People principles; listen to people with learningdisabilities and their families to see if things are improving; bring partners together and advise Government.The Taskforce has highlighted the responsiveness of the police and other partners to people with learningdisabilities as a particular area where improvements should be made.

“If you want very simple, practical suggestions to raise awareness – then I think all police officers shouldread The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Not only is it a fantastic read – butit gives a real sense of how someone with a learning disability can feel when coming into contact with thepolice.” Member of the Government’s Learning Disabilities Taskforce (for details of the Taskforce contact:[email protected])


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difference between an approach that issustainable and one that is not. There needs to bean emphasis on relationship building, listeningand problem solving. The public are more thanusers of services, they are stakeholders in thesecurity of their neighbourhoods. So there needsto be a continuous dialogue and two-wayexchange of information and views, together withincreased opportunities for participation so thatthat people are more involved. Communitiesmust see how their input is being used to informand change the delivery of policing services. Andpeople should be clear about how to hold toaccount those who are responsible for policingand community safety.

3.46 At present, police authorities have a statutoryresponsibility to consult the public on localpolicing priorities. This has most often been donevia what are known as Police CommunityConsultative Groups. However, Home Officeresearch has shown these formal public meetingsto be ineffective for strategic consultation onpriority setting.8 While these groups cansometimes be effective as a local problem solvingforum,9 they are often poorly attended and notrepresentative of the whole community. Manyauthorities have constituted, abandoned orsupplemented such groups with other forms ofengagement, but progress has been variablewithin and between authorities.10 Moving beyondrelying on public meetings as a sole form ofengagement is a key aim of our reforms.

Measuring public satisfaction3.43 To reflect the importance placed on customer

service, the Government is changing the way inwhich police performance is measured torecognise that public satisfaction is an essentialelement of good performance. We have alreadyintroduced new performance indicators thatfocus on quality of service. From April 2005,the comparative assessment of overall forceperformance will include the satisfaction ofvictims of crime about how easy it was tomake contact with the police, how theywere treated by staff, the actions policeofficers took and how they were keptinformed of progress. We are continuing todevelop this work so that the views of victims ofanti-social behaviour can also be reflected inassessments of performance.

3.44 The Government will also give a greateremphasis to assessing customer service andresponsiveness as part of the changes tooverall arrangements for inspection andaccountability, which are set out inChapter Five.

Engaging the public3.45 The Government regards the involvement of

communities in the process of identifying whichproblems are the priorities, and being part of thesolution, as an essential element of a successfulneighbourhood policing approach. It is this directand continuous engagement that can make the

8 (Elliott and Nicholls, 1996; Myhill et al, 2003).

9 (Neyroud, 2001).

10 (Myhill et al, 2003).

3.47 The Government acknowledges that many policeforces and authorities are adopting a range ofmore innovative and inclusive techniques toengage their communities. But this is nothappening everywhere. Recent Home Officeresearch into the role of police authorities inpublic engagement found a low public awarenessof existing police-public consultationarrangements. Whilst there were examples ofengagement impacting on policing plans,community relations and service delivery, not allauthorities had a strategy for consultation andcommunity engagement and authorities did notgenerally monitor impact of engagement in anysystematic way. The research suggests that thepublic feel they do not have a say in decisionsabout policing but do want bettercommunication, information and involvement.

3.48 Underpinning our approach to neighbourhoodpolicing and improving the responsiveness of thepolice, the Government wants to build oncommunity engagement initiatives alreadyunderway and ensure that all communities havethe same opportunities to have a real say in theway they are policed, get more involved if theywant to, and hold relevant agencies to accountlocally. There are a number of elements to thisapproach, which we set out below.

Better information to the public3.49 The Government regards the dissemination to

the public of better information about communitysafety and policing as being a necessary first steptowards increasing local engagement andaccountability. In many respects, people'sunderstanding of the performance of their localpolice area lags behind that of other publicservices – such as local authorities, schools andhospitals – where systems have been put in placefor informing the public about the relative andcomparative performance of the service inquestion.

3.50 As we explore in Chapter Five of this paper, thesystem we have in place for monitoring policeperformance (the Policing PerformanceAssessment Framework) and associateddevelopments provide a national view of effectiveperformance or under performance at the forceand Basic Command Unit level. However, theGovernment believes it is also vital that, locally,police authorities, police forces, BCUs and –wherever possible – neighbourhood teams –provide communities with relevant and accessibleinformation about local policing, tailored to localneeds. We know that some forces and authoritieshave made great progress in improving theinformation they provide to the public. But again,it is not happening everywhere.

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64 | Building Communities, Beating Crime

Sussex Police produce postcards for households including information from the BCU Commander, policestation opening times and details of the officers policing that area. Surrey Police have individual web pagesfor beat officers that are updated monthly, and include information on officer contact details and localmeetings and activities. Avon and Somerset Constabulary have developed an email bulletin service providinga variety of information including news, appeals, Crimestoppers updates and job vacancies which the publiccan sign up to receive. The force have also created information kiosks in public places giving live access tothe force website and direct contact with the police.

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3.51 We believe that there is clear value in bringing abroad array of information into one concise andaccessible document summarising local policingfor the public. And we think that every area of thecountry should benefit from receiving aconsistent level of information. We thereforeplan to introduce a statutory minimumrequirement in terms of what eachhousehold can expect to receive in termsof local policing information.

3.52 We are talking with stakeholders about what theminimum standards will include but our presentthinking is that it should cover the followingareas:

• an explanation of local policing priorities andhow well they have been discharged;

• information on how local policing is led,organised and delivered, and who isaccountable;

• a view of comparative policing performance atthe most local level possible (probably at thelevel of the Basic Command Unit or Crime andDisorder Reduction Partnership level), showingspecific performance in defined areas, trendsover time and comparison to peers;

• specific information on how individuals,groups and communities can influence andengage local policing;

• information on ways to give feedback to thepolice and what has been done to improveservices in response to the feedback received;

• a summary assessment from Her Majesty'sInspectorate of Constabulary's perspective onlocal policing performance;

• information on how police resources areapplied; and

• a requirement for the publication to meet theneeds of local communities by incorporatingspecific additional information, diversity orlanguage requirements.

3.53 The Government proposes that the minimumstandard will make it clear that each householdshould expect to receive this information at leastonce a year. Wherever possible, we think that thisshould be done in partnership with informationbeing provided to the public by other relevantagencies through, for example, local authoritynewsletters. In a similar vein, we want to improvethe information provided by Crime and DisorderReduction Partnerships to communities. We willlink this with the minimum standards set forpolicing information so that as far as possible,partnerships and the police have the opportunityto rationalise the way both CDRP and policing-specific information is provided to the public.


Helping forces engage with the public3.54 The Government will continue to invest in

research and support forces to identify principlesof good practice on engaging more effectively withcommunities. Community engagement willincreasingly become a core part of the role ofmany frontline officers and police staff and theywill need the knowledge and skills to undertakesuch engagement effectively. Much of thisinformation and support material already exists,but is not centrally captured in a form that otherscan easily share. To overcome this, theGovernment has invited a group of experiencedpractitioners from police forces and authorities toform the National Practitioner Panel forCommunity Engagement in Policing to look athow best to support effective engagement. As aresult of its work, the Government will bemaking available new forms of support andadvice on how frontline staff can engagemore effectively with local communities.This will include the development of a database ofexamples of effective practice so that staff canlearn from each other’s experience. These toolswill be accessible to forces and authoritiesnationwide in early 2005. The Government hasalso funded three demonstration sites inMerseyside, Cheshire and Northumbria to testmore innovative ways of engaging effectively with

communities. The results of this work will informthe Panel’s strategy and products, and will bewidely available for others to share.

3.55 But the Government recognises that there is no“one-size-fits-all” approach to communityengagement. What works for one community willnot necessarily work for another. Effectiveengagement can only be achieved by matchingthe right means to a proper understanding oflocal circumstances. In identifying “what works”,police forces and authorities will therefore needto understand not only which engagementstrategies are successful, but why – and in whatcircumstances – they have been successful.

Measuring performance aboutresponding to local priorities

3.56 Alongside the changes to the measurement ofperformance to reflect public satisfaction that wediscuss in paragraph 3.43 above, and as part of itsreforms to support local contracts between policeand their communities, the Governmentproposes to make changes to the way policeperformance is measured and inspected sothat it reflects the priorities of the publicand their views about the policing they havereceived. This will include the inclusion ofmeasures about local priorities in the PolicingPerformance Assessment Framework.

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Neighbourhood WatchNeighbourhood Watch already represents a major success story in terms of community engagement, and wewant to build on this success and encourage the creation of networks of active citizens working inpartnership with the police and others to tackle local crime and disorder issues:

• We are setting up a new Neighbourhood Watch website and helpline which will provide access toup-to-date prevention advice, a co-ordinators’ discussion forum and a database of good practice.

• We will be creating a national forum for police, local authority staff, Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinatorsand other community organisations to come together and share ideas.

• Alongside the forum, we will seek to develop a “Watch” Network which brings together a variety ofschemes such as Pubwatch, Shopwatch etc to share learning and provide support to each other.

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What does effective engagement look like for the Police Service?

A police service which is engaging effectively with the community will:

• have a detailed, neighbourhood level understanding of the demographics of the community it serves;

• have a detailed – and regularly updated – picture of the interests, needs, priorities and preferences ofevery section of that community;

• establish and facilitate an ongoing and consistent dialogue with all sections of the community byregularly discussing and sharing information about policing and community safety issues, and listeningto and acting on feedback from the community;

• understand how, and the extent to which, different sections of the community feel most comfortable ininteracting with the police, and take this into account in tailoring their engagement strategies;

• use a range of different, locally adapted means and strategies to facilitate ongoing dialogue andpartnership working with all sections of the community;

• allow its priorities and service delivery strategies to be influenced, changed and, where appropriate,driven by community concerns and priorities;

• provide ongoing feedback to the community about how their input has impacted on local policing;

• identify and maximise opportunities to deliver policing services in partnership with the community, bothgroups and individuals; and

• understand that effective engagement with the community is core to the successful delivery of allpolice business, and not a “bolt-on” or a specialism.

Increasing opportunities forengagement

3.57 We are making clear our expectations about theresponsibility of the police and partners toactively engage the public and respond toconcerns at neighbourhood level and worktogether to tackle these problems. Closerworking between the police, partners and thelocal community will also help ensure that localresources are targeted more effectively to tacklethe issues that really matter to the community.

The Government recognises that, in order to dothis effectively, agencies must have the flexibilityto develop mechanisms that will suit their localcircumstances. However, there also needs to beconsistency of outcomes and opportunities forthe public to participate. Responses to ourconsultation paper, Policing: Building SaferCommunities Together11 showed strong supportfor the proposals for providing greateropportunities to influence policing.

11 available at www.policereform.gov.uk


3.58 These reforms are not about introducing changefor its own sake – but to put in placearrangements that will support the greateroperational responsiveness on the part of policeand partners that comes with neighbourhoodpolicing. There is no substitute for the importanceof personal contact, availability, visibility andtherefore accessibility of uniformed officers andcommunity support officers. Familiarity and trustbetween neighbourhood teams and local peoplethat develops through a known and consistentpresence is the best form of communication. Andwhere agreements between local people, policeand partners to take action to deal quickly withneighbourhood priorities can be undertaken lessformally and with the minimum of bureaucracy,this option should always be taken beforerecourse to more formal arrangements.

3.59 We think nevertheless that there is a strong casefor strengthening the statutory responsibilities ofagencies to have arrangements in place to activelyengage with communities at neighbourhood leveland work together to deal with problems that cutacross agency boundaries and require a multi-agency solution. We propose that existing

duties for partnership working under s.17of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 shouldbe built on, and a joint duty should beplaced on the police and local authorities ineach CDRP area to ensure they havesufficient arrangements in place to deliver arange of engagement opportunities for localneighbourhoods and to respond toconcerns that are raised as a result. Wepropose the following changes to existingstatutory arrangements:

• extending the responsibility on policeauthorities to secure the implementationof a strategy to engage the community atall levels – including neighbourhoods –within the police area;

• a direct responsibility on the police inpartnership with other bodies to put thestrategy into place and to havearrangements to respond toneighbourhood level concerns; and

• a requirement for CDRPs to oversee thedelivery of neighbourhood level prioritiesagreed with local communities. This may

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Joint Tasking and Co-ordination GroupsIn the Ingol ward in Preston, Lancashire, fortnightly ward level Tasking and Co-ordination Group meetings areheld. These are now chaired by community representatives (e.g. the chair of local community association)and partners.

Each meeting produces an action plan with clear objectives, including ownership of each element. Membersof the community are frequently tasked with specific activities. Examples include collection of intelligenceabout specific problems, participation in environmental clean ups and attendance at court to provideevidence of community impact in ASBO cases. Community representatives and partners are also keyparticipants in problem solving activity.

The meeting also includes an opportunity for community members, partners and police to raise issues thatthey believe pose a threat to tackling local priorities. Problems that have been highlighted include, perceivedweak sentencing in cases of anti-social behaviour and policy on the housing of anti-social or problematicindividuals. Community members are involved in deciding how best to take these issues forward.

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involve the routine establishment of jointtasking and co-ordination groups that arealready in place in some areas.

3.60 We do not intend, however, to prescribe whatconstitutes a neighbourhood in any given area.This is best determined locally, in consultationwith local people – although it will need to be at asufficiently local level i.e. sub-BCU andmeaningful to the community.

3.61 We will not be prescriptive about the form thesearrangements should take, nor do we intend thatseparate arrangements for policing andcommunity safety necessarily need to be put inplace. Wherever possible existing structures thatthe local authority already has in place,(sometimes called area boards, committees orforums) that are working well should be used.A number of different approaches are availableincluding the Community Service Agreementsmodel advocated by the Scarman Trust.

3.62 We recognise too that there are innovativeapproaches to raising resources, such as co-funding from regeneration and social renewalbudgets and levies in relation to definedcommunities, in some parts of the country at avery local level. Kensington New Deal forCommunities in Liverpool, for example, employswardens, which it jointly funds with the localhousing association. And citizens served by parishcouncils or housing associations have democraticmechanisms, which allow them to give theirconsent to a local charge that can be used to raisefunds for improvements to community safety andthe local quality of life. We want to look further atwhether these kind of co-funding arrangementscould be more widespread, with due regard tosocial equity, accountability and the interests oflocal council tax payers.

Community Service AgreementsCommunity Service Agreements™ have been developed by the Scarman Trust as ‘reciprocal service levelagreements’, negotiated between a range of community based organisations on the one side and outsideagencies on the other. They are essentially bottom-up, community defined contracts that can help tomobilise the broadest range of local resources and energies to tackle local issues.

Community-based organisations will sign up to take broad actions of different kinds – clear up a piece ofwaste ground, provide new activities for teenagers and so on. Outside agencies similarly will be expected tomake early practical commitments to action to be delivered within a defined timeframe – within days andcertainly within a month. Policing Priority Areas provide good examples of this approach, for example withcommitments to tow away abandoned cars within 24 hours. From here, they may progress to widerambitions and deeper collaborations.

To enable them to participate, communities will be provided with a small amount of initial financial support,including the cost of employing a community organiser. Dedicated staff resources will also be provided byagencies. It is anticipated that as the value of different activities is proved, community organisations will beable to gain access to a range of resources, so as to sustain activities in the longer term – for examplethrough the Local Area Agreement Process.


Local Area Agreements3.63 Local Area Agreements will offer greater freedom

and flexibility through the amalgamation offunding streams to achieve priority outcomes atlocal level. Pilot agreements will be running in 21areas from April 2005. We intend to include anumber of approaches such as those mentionedabove in the pilot process as a means to increaseengagement at neighbourhood level and improvethe responsiveness of public services.

3.64 The ethos behind Local Area Agreements is thatthey should not be prescriptive about solutionsand processes but rather should enable each areato agree local solutions for local circumstances.These could include locally-determined communityengagement outcomes drawing on effectivepractice models for community engagement.

Giving communities a stronger voice3.65 Increasing the opportunities for local

communities to have a greater voice in andinfluence over local decision-making and thedelivery of services is central to the developing10-year local government strategy. In many areas,local councillors are the people that communitiesturn to for advice and support and surveyssuggest that the public think that the mostimportant role of councillors should be listeningto local people. However, some people think thatcouncillors are out of touch with local concerns.We think therefore that as well as ensuring thatthe police and partners have arrangements inplace to actively engage people at theneighbourhood level, there is a case forstrengthening the links between local councillors,in the role they play in community safety issues,and the public.

Community advocacy

3.66 The Government's recent consultation exerciseon police reform revealed strong support from

the public for a community advocacy role withincommunities. We are clear that it is thedemocratically elected local councillors whoshould be advocates for their communities andrepresent the views of the public about theservices they receive. But we recognise that somecommunities are more able to articulate concernsto them than others. The Home Office willtherefore work with the Office of theDeputy Prime Minister as part of theGovernment’s local government strategy, todevelop a range of ways in which wardcouncillors can be assisted to act asadvocates. This will include helping localcouncillors to provide better support to citizenswho need to access police or other communitysafety services. They would actively work withcommunities and empower individuals to findbetter solutions to their problems and ensure thatthe voice of local people about the quality ofservice received is heard and acted on by serviceproviders.

3.67 There are a number of possible options. Onecould be to develop and/or extend the capacitybuilding and liaison role of community safetyofficers where they exist. They could work tobuild stronger relationships with communityorganisations and networks and have a distinctrole in communicating local concerns to wardcouncillors. This would be an extension of the rolewhich many of them are currently playing as partof Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships.

Triggers for local action

3.68 Communities rely on the police and theirpartners to use the powers that only they haveavailable to them to keep their communities safe.They need to be given a guarantee that whenfaced with a problem that requires the use ofthose powers, action will be taken on their behalf.

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3.69 The Government does not want to see localcommunities being left to fend for themselvesbecause they have not been able to get aresponse from local agencies. Neither do we wantthe police or local authorities to be left to dealwith recurring problems because they cannot getone or more of their partners to take action toresolve them. The Government thereforeproposes introducing a specific mechanismto trigger such action.

3.70 The Government considers that one option couldbe to strengthen the role of local councillors inthis respect by giving them the right to triggeraction on the part of police and other relevantagencies when they are presented with acute orpersistent problems of crime or anti-socialbehaviour to which local communities have beenunable to get an effective response. This wouldnot be about individual complaints – nor could itbe triggered by individuals – but rather bycommunity groups, after persistent efforts tosecure action have come to nothing. This powerwould give elected representatives greater abilityto obtain a solution for their communities.

3.71 This new power would give communities agreater guarantee that they will be properlyprotected. But we recognise that it will be vital toput in place sufficient safeguards to preventmalicious or vexatious use of the power or itsmisuse by groups with extremist views.Councillors would have to demonstrate that thecase met certain conditions before they were ableto invoke the trigger power. Agencies would beable to decline requests under certaincircumstances if, for example, they were frivolous,vexatious or would involve a disproportionateburden on agencies. We are proposing that thisshould be an avenue of last resort rather than amainstream way of doing business.

3.72 Under this option, we think that local councillorsshould be able to trigger three levels of responseon the part of the relevant agencies:

(i) obtaining information that was not beingmade available;

(ii) attendance by the relevant authority at alocal public meeting;

(iii) action on the part of a wide range ofspecified agencies, including local councils,with a role to play in community safety.

3.73 In additon to proposals to strengthen thestatutory responsibility of agencies to worktogether to tackle problems that require a multi-agency solution, the trigger process wouldrequire a specific statutory duty – building onexisting duties for partnership working under s.17of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 – to beplaced on a wide range of other organisations,including other criminal justice agencies, to co-operate. Requests for action would be dealt withat the lowest appropriate level. We foresee that inmany cases, this would begin with a meeting of allthe relevant agencies and the local community toconsider the problem and agree a course ofaction to resolve it. In doing so, all local agencieswould be obliged to consider the full range ofpowers and interventions at their disposal.

3.74 If it was decided that no action was to be taken,the relevant agencies would need to explain why.Subject to the Review of the Crime and DisorderAct that we discuss in Chapter Five, we proposethat agencies’ record of dealing with requests totrigger local action would be monitored by thescrutiny panel of the local authority, and any rightof appeal would be via this route. Their record onresponsiveness and would feed into thearrangements for inspection and assessment ofperformance more broadly.

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3.75 We also think there may be a case for triggeringan inspection in certain circumstances. We willconsult further on how this would be put intopractice as part of the Government’s consultationnext year on inspection of the wider criminaljustice system that we discuss in Chapter Five.

3.76 The Government believes that the existence ofthe trigger mechanism will almost certainly meana change in attitude and to practice which willmake its use extremely infrequent. But we wantto make sure that members of all communities –not just the well organised or vocal – can, in thefinal analysis, get action taken to deal with crimeand anti-social behaviour in their neighbourhood.However, in advance of, and to inform thenecessary legislation which would be required toput this trigger mechanism into effect, we willwork through the practicalities of how it mightoperate, and we will do so with chief officers ofpolice and others.

Above the neighbourhood level3.77 Policing at the neighbourhood level cannot be

looked at in isolation, or as somehow distinctfrom activity which takes place above this verylocal level. High performing, responsiveneighbourhood policing must be supported byeffective arrangements above this level – at whatis commonly known as the Basic Command Unit(BCU) level within police forces. Effectivepartnership working at this level is vital sinceBCUs typically correspond to Crime and DisorderReduction Partnership areas. The post of BCUCommander – usually held by a chiefsuperintendent – is now one of the mostimportant jobs in British policing.

3.78 The Government regards the leadership of BCUcommanders to be crucial in terms of embeddinga new customer service culture within forces andensuring that neighbourhood policing is notsimply some kind of bolt-on – rather it beingmainstream activity. Chapter Four contains somespecific proposals for supporting and developingBCU Commanders (see paragraph 4.60). Weexplore below the key issue of the empowermentof local police at BCU level.

Delegation to BCU Commanders

3.79 Delegation and devolution to the frontline is oneof the Prime Minister’s four principles of publicservice reform, essential in enabling trueresponsiveness to local needs and givingcommunities a greater say in the design anddelivery of their local services.

3.80 The Government’s 2001 policy paper on policereform12 set out our commitment to exploringdelegation and devolution in the policing context.This was again highlighted in our November 2003consultation paper Policing: Building SaferCommunities Together to which respondentsrecognised the need to empower BCUcommanders, with financial delegation seen bymany as an essential part of this process.

3.81 The BCU fund was created during the 2002Spending Review, as part of the Government'scommitment to devolution and partnershipworking. £50m was assigned to the fund anddistributed across forces nationally as ring-fencedfunding. The intention was to give BCUCommanders considerable autonomy on how themoney, delegated to them by the chief constable,was spent, with the one requirement that itshould be used for funding local initiatives andmust be agreed by CDRPs. The fund has beenused successfully to tackle anti-social behaviour,

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12 Home Office White Paper, ‘Policing a New Century: A Blueprint for Reform’ published in December 2001.

to fund youth inclusion work, CCTV and drugprevention and in the provision of police supportfor such interventions. The feedback on the fundhas been largely positive. The Government iscommitted to the continued funding of localinitiatives and is looking at how the BCU fundshould now be most effectively administered.

3.82 Additionally, the Police Standards Unit hasundertaken preliminary research with a numberof forces with the aim of identifying the keyfactors enabling BCU success. Not all BCUcommanders have the same levels of financialfreedom and the degree of delegation variesdepending on the police force and itsmanagement culture. The issue of delegation iscomplex. Clearly, delegation – however it isexecuted – should not break the chain ofcommand between a BCU commander and theirchief officer.

3.83 The PSU’s work has demonstrated that increaseddelegation to BCU commanders can increasetheir capacity to respond to local needs and canunderpin sustainable performance improvementsin the BCU and across the force. Delegation canincrease the opportunities for creativity andinnovation in operating practices at the locallevel. Importantly commanders who are able tomake spending decisions themselves also feelable to play a more active and constructive rolein partnerships.

3.84 However, the government recognises thatdelegation is not a panacea. Unless strongleadership, robust mechanisms of accountabilityand a clear operating framework are in place,poorly implemented or inappropriate delegationhas the potential to undermine performance anddestabilise a force.

3.85 The challenge remains how to effectively“empower” BCU commanders while maintainingthe coherence of the force and avoiding thecreation of uneconomical units. The Governmentproposes to:

• carefully examine the precise role of BCUcommanders and their contribution topartnership working. This will take intoaccount the different contexts of policingacross the country and address thebalance of activities between those thatare delegated and those that are bettermanaged centrally; and

• develop further the key enablers ofdelegation to BCU Commanders. We willexamine the importance of leadership,looking particularly at how far thedirection and corporate vision whichchief constables provide and the trustthey exhibit in their commanders areessential for successful delegation tooccur, and how this needs to besupported by appropriate training for allsenior ranks. We will examine the use ofstronger mechanisms for BCUcommanders to be held accountable fortheir performance, and investigate therelationships between force HQs andBCUs, including how resources are to bebalanced and negotiated between them toprovide a clear operating framework.

3.86 The Government proposes to produceclear guidance on BCU delegation andempowerment. We would expect this guidanceto be used by forces to augment plans theyshould already have in place for moving towardsgreater delegation. We intend to explore thepossibility of introducing a statutory Code ofPractice for BCU empowerment, to which chiefofficers would need to have regard, based onthis guidance.

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Chapter Four: Building anew workforce

Building Communities, Beating Crime |


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Chapter Four: Building a new workforce


• further modernisation of the police workforce to reinforce neighbourhoodpolicing and building a more responsive, citizen-focused police service;

• increased use of police staff to get officers back on the front line; maximisingthe effectiveness of community support officers;

• enhancing and professionalising the roles of police officers and staff;

• opening the service to new talent – by entry for those with valuable skills atlevels above constable;

• strengthening leadership at all levels;

• making faster progress on diversity

Key proposals:

• A consistent approach to career management based on national occupational standards and aneffective Performance and Development Review system; accreditation and recognition of prior learning;

• A new Neighbourhood Policing Fund; better rostering; enhancing the roles and skills of police staff; aminimum set of powers for community support officers and improved training to tackle anti-socialbehaviour linked to the TOGETHER academy;

• Continued focus on removing unnecessary bureaucracy including practical assistance for forcesthrough a dedicated assistant chief constable resource and new hotline;

• Recruitment at levels above constable for those who can meet the relevant occupational standards;

• New family-friendly training for probationers; leadership and management training for police officersand staff of all grades; a mandatory qualification for Basic Command Unit Commanders; anddevelopment of a Senior Careers Advisory Service for current and future chief officers; and

• Recruitment of officers with specific language skills; national panel of recruitment assessors fromethnic minority communities; more support for serving officers from ethnic minorities; targets forprogression of women in the service

Introduction4.1 There are now more police officers in England

and Wales – nearly 140,000 – than ever before.Thirty years ago, there were 149 officers in therank of constable per 100,000 of the population.In March this year there were 211, an increase ofover 29%. They are now supported by recordnumbers of police staff – 66,000, by 4,000community support officers where there werenone two years ago, and by 11,000 specialconstables. The total police workforce nowstands at nearly 210,000 compared with 177,000in March 2000. The Government is committedto maintaining record officer numbers andincreasing CSO numbers. As we described inChapter Three, the number of CSOs and wardenswill rise to 25,000 by 2008.

4.2 But numbers are not the whole story. TheGovernment attaches great value to having policeofficers and police staff with high integrity, whoare impatient with injustice, anxious to creategood order and deliver an excellent service totheir communities. The vision for a moreresponsive, citizen-focused police service set outin this policy paper is an ambitious one. It will bethe police workforce – police officers and policestaff – which will deliver this change. To make thishappen, the Government believes that the serviceneeds a workforce which is truly diverse andrepresentative of the communities it serves: well-led, skilled, and customer-focused. Some of ourinheritance in this respect – such as the uniquelegal status of the office of constable – remains asimportant today as it did in the past and theGovernment has no intention of diminishing it.But in other key areas – such as aspects ofrecruitment, retirement, discipline, careerprogression, training and leadership development– the legacy can slow progress and achievement

rather than facilitating it. This chapter sets outour proposals for change in these and other areas– which critically underpin our approach topolicing today’s world.

Achievements to date4.3 As with other elements of policing covered in this

paper, reform of the police workforce does notbegin here. We have made workforcemodernisation a central issue in our programmeof reform to date and have declared our intentionto build the professionalism and widen the rolesof police officers and staff. There have beensubstantial achievements already:

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• Record numbers of police personnel – wehave invested in record police numbers andwill continue to do so. We have created thenew role of community support officer (CSO)and, as indicated above, are committed to asixfold increase in their numbers.

• A reformed rewards system for policeofficers – changes to police officers’ pay andconditions of service were agreed in the PoliceNegotiating Board for the federated ranks inMay 2002 and subsequently for more seniorranks. These agreements introduced:

– pay arrangements which for the first timerecognised the need to reward morechallenging posts and individual competenceand performance;

– in the case of senior officers, three-year dealsto permit a longer term approach to rewardsissues.

• Improved attendance management – inOctober 2002 we implemented a Strategy for aHealthy Police Service, making £15m available toforces over three years to strengthen theiroccupational health capability. The aims of thestrategy were a 15% reduction in officer sicknessand 7% reduction in staff sickness in two years.The targets of 11.5 days per officer and 12 daysper member of police staff by March 2006 havealready been exceeded. In 2003-4, forcesreported average absence rates of 9.6 days forofficers and 10.9 days for staff. All but five forceshad achieved levels below the national targetrate.

Our approach to building a newworkforce

4.4 These are all real achievements. But they havenot yet provided an environment in which ability,skills and experience can always flourish so that

we truly have a workforce capable of meeting theever increasing challenges which face the policeservice. The Government’s workforce strategy isbased on providing the right numbers, skills mix,development and management to deliverexcellent service to the public. We will seek todevelop a motivated, efficient, customer-focusedand well-led workforce that puts the law-abidingcitizen first and is effective in reducing crime,detecting crime and preventing crime. We remainstrongly of the view that the composition of theservice does not yet fully reflect the diversity ofthe society that it serves and that it is animperative for it to do so in the future.

4.5 At the heart of the Government’s strategy iseffective leadership throughout the service. Weare committed to strengthening leadership atstrategic, operational and first line levels. We haveput commanders at Basic Command Unit level atthe centre of delivering safer communities.Building on this approach, we want to support, inparticular, the leadership role of the constable inthe community.

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4.6 Up to now, the Government has focused itstraining efforts on new entrants to the service –probationers – and on its senior managers. Butwe have seen development beyond that as largelya matter of preparing for promotion even thoughmost police officers remain in the rank ofconstable throughout their service. A central partof our developing workforce modernisationprogramme will therefore be to develop andimplement improved learning and developmentprogrammes for everyone in the service.

4.7 The Government believes that modernising thepolice workforce to deliver a more responsive,citizen-focused service means looking at eachelement of human resources management in thepolice service, from recruitment and probationertraining to retirement.

4.8 Centrex1 will have a vital role as a partner inworkforce modernisation, as its role evolves fromthat of a volume training provider to anorganisation which supports and co-ordinates thetraining of officers and staff, designing newlearning and development programmes andensuring consistency of training standards acrossthe country through its work on assessment,quality assurance and evaluation.

4.9 We set out below the key elements of ourapproach, beginning with the central role we seefor police constables in keeping our communitiessafe.

The central role of the constable

4.10 Out of nearly 140,000 police officers, almost111,000 are constables – or 37,000 (50%) morethan there were 30 years ago. Today’s constablesface new challenges even though many of thefundamentals of their job have not changed.

Police officers help prevent crime, catch criminals,protect the public, help victims and witnesses andreassure our communities. As we explore inChapter One of this paper (see paragraph 1.20),the Government sees the role of the policeservice of today as being based, in large measure,on the core duties which all police constables arerequired to affirm to carry out.

4.11 At the same time, the changing operational andtechnological environment in which the policeservice now operates requires the acquisition ofnew skills – and in some cases a high degree ofspecialism – just as it will continue to require ahigh degree of versatility from officers. All officersneed to be able to undertake major crimeinvestigation, the effective use of forensictechniques and the handling of personal crisesin issues such as domestic violence. A significantproportion of the police effort will always beneeded to respond to calls for service quicklyand effectively.

4.12 But with the spread of dedicated neighbourhoodpolicing teams, we see constables increasinglyworking as community leaders in deliveringwhat the public sees as priorities in their area.Increasingly they will be managing communitysupport officers and wardens as part of mixedteams serving their communities. This is centralto the kind of responsive neighbourhood policingacross the country that we explore in ChapterThree of this paper. Constables will need to beskilled in building partnerships with criminaljustice agencies and local authorities and securingadditional resources for their borough or ward.We believe that the role of dedicatedneighbourhood officer in today’s world is askilled, specialist one – which needs to beproperly recognised, supported and rewarded.

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1 CENTREX (the working name of the Central Police Training and Development Authority), is a Non-Departmental Public Body. It isthe national provider of training to the police service.


The Core Leadership DevelopmentProgramme will ensure that officers ofall levels, including post probationaryconstables, can develop the importantleadership skills that will benefit andinform the way police constables andcommunity support officers worktogether in serving the community.

4.13 The Government does not, however, propose todiminish the legal status of the office of constablewithin the police service or to make policeofficers employees of police authorities. To doso would risk undermining the operationaldiscretion and versatility, and the personalaccountability of constables for their actions,on which the service depends.

4.14 The Government will put in placemechanisms for continuously developingconstables’ operational skills, building onthe Professionalising the Investigative Processprogramme, currently being taken forward bythe National Centre for Policing Excellence inCentrex. Enhanced learning and developmentalong these lines, together with the proposalsfor professional registers, career pathways andimproved performance and development reviewsset out below should, we believe, help makecontinuous professional development foreveryone in the service – including lifelongconstables – a reality.

4.15 Within this framework though, the Governmentwants to consider changes to regulations wherethis will help develop a more flexible, betterintegrated workforce. Specifically, we will nolonger require officers to have spent aspecific number of years in a particularrank before being eligible for promotion.We think these are anachronistic restrictions and

should be removed. Ability to do the job on thebasis of national occupational standards shouldbe the test.

Sergeants and inspectors

4.16 The role of sergeants is also critical to building amore responsive service. Sergeants are the firstline managers of all front-line officers, and as suchexercise a vital operational and leadership role inthe service. They are also increasingly workingwith police staff. As the head of individual beatteams, their role in deployment and, in particular,in the prioritisation of the work of the policewithin local communities is critical – and willbecome increasingly so given our emphasis ondedicated neighbourhood policing.

4.17 As responsibility is increasingly delegated to thefront line, the leadership and management role ofinspectors and chief inspectors is also becomingmore and more crucial. In particular, officers atthese ranks should be playing a key role indeveloping the workforce – both their own teamsand more widely – and in identifying, developingand disseminating good practice. People at thislevel should all feel engaged in continuouslyimproving police performance.

4.18 Sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors –and police staff at equivalent levels – willall have access to the Core LeadershipDevelopment Programme, which will aimto develop their managerial, leadership andsome operational skills. A range of operationalskills will be further enhanced through theProfessionalising the Investigative Processprogramme.

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The role of the Chief Constable

4.19 Excellent strategic leadership and vision on thepart of chief constables will be crucial todelivering the reforms set out in this policy paperand to ensuring that all communities receive anoutstanding service from their local police. Chiefconstables must be committed to improvingperformance, challenging traditional ways ofworking as they lead reform in their forces. Weare committed to working with them in removingregulatory barriers to effective delivery.

4.20 Chief constables will play a leading role inincreasing community engagement bycommunicating effectively with local citizens.They are very well placed to identifydevelopments in local communities because ofthe wide range of situations police officers dealwith. They can contribute to the strategicdirection of agencies working together oncommunity safety. Chiefs already play a centralrole in the success of Local Criminal JusticeBoards. We want high performing chief constablesto work not only within their forces, but withtheir wider criminal justice partners to deliver aneffective policing service.

4.21 The personal integrity of chief constables isessential in setting the highest ethical standardsfor the service. They must champion diversityand inclusivity in their forces and throughoutthe police service.

4.22 Chief constables are also, of course, accountableto their police authorities and to theircommunities more widely for delivery ofthe national and local policing plans, for theperformance of their force, and for all aspects ofthe service which their officers and staff provide.A national performance and development schemefor chief officers was introduced in April 2003,to assess chiefs’ performance. We will revise thescheme to give police authorities a leadingrole in operating it.

The extended police family 4.23 In the Government’s November 2003 consultation

paper on police reform, we introduced theconcept of convergence of the status of differentmembers of the police family. In line with therecommendations of the recent HMIC thematicinspection on modernising the police workforce2,we believe it is essential for the long termdevelopment of the police service that wedevelop an organisation in which all those whowork for the police service have an equivalentstake in the success of the organisation and ashared commitment to its aims. We do nothowever envisage a single legal status for officersand police staff.

4.24 We have already done much to develop theextended police family. We have, for example,developed good practice in the recruitment andmanagement of volunteers. Police officers are

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2 HMIC Modernising the Police Workforce (2004).


now increasingly supported by communitysupport officers (CSOs), special constables andpolice staff such as scenes of crimes officers,investigators, communications centre staff andcase handlers in criminal justice units.

4.25 The recent HMIC thematic inspection ofworkforce modernisation nevertheless identifiedsignificant variation in the extent to which policeforces have recruited staff to support officers.Effective support and deployment, making fulluse of new technology, is essential if we are toreduce bureaucratic burdens on officers andincrease their availability for front line roles.We have funded workforce modernisationpilots which have demonstrated how policestaff can take over custody and case managementroles from officers who can then return to thefront line.

4.26 Forces have already begun to deploy officers,CSOs and other staff on this basis. InNorthumbria for example, the recruitment of newcustody staff has freed up 90 officers for the frontline. Wiltshire Police are using designatedinvestigators to deal with routine interviewsand evidence gathering – thus freeing up policeofficers to handle more complex cases. To be ableto achieve similar results nationally, we will lookto proposals under the Neighbourhood PolicingFund to identify how to use police staff moreefficiently and so enable them to free still moreofficers from back office and support functions.

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Community support officers

4.27 Evidence from forces shows that communitysupport officers are already making a realdifference to public confidence and policeeffectiveness. They are being effective in dealingwith antisocial behaviour and tackling a range oflow level problems that can be very destructive tocommunities. 27 evaluation programmes in forcesdeploying CSOs are already providing evidenceof their impact at a local level. In Leeds andBradford, for example, 82% of those interviewedstated that the presence of a visible CSO patrolmade the city centre feel a more welcomingplace to work, shop or visit. In Cambridgeshire,one beat area saw crime fall by 22.7% after theintroduction of CSOs. The Home Office willreport on the national picture, building on thislocal material, in December 2004.

Increasing front line police officer strength through the deploymentof police staffMetropolitan Police. Supported by a £2.5m grant from the Home Office, the Bexley Borough of theMetropolitan Police has reviewed their main business functions and are in the process of re-engineeringkey areas of service delivery, including community policing, investigation, and custody. Changes in allthese areas will result in the recruitment of police staff in a range of new roles, the introduction ofbetter business services, and the next phase will release at least 30 police officers from back officerelated work to the front line. An external evaluation under development will measures the projectsimpact in tackling crime, improving reassurance and in making better use of resources.

Thames Valley Police has introduced a Police Redeployment Programme which has put staff in almost400 posts previously designated for police officers and deployed these officers to front-line duties. Thiswas the second phase of a strategy which started with recruiting people with specified professionalbackgrounds to fill key operational support and business support roles. For instance, BCU ManagementTeams include police staff members – specifically Business Managers and Personnel Managers – and theforce’s scientific support is now delivered by police staff. To support these changes, a new pay structurefor police staff has been introduced, moving away from incremental scales to broad pay bands withannual increases dependent on performance measured through PDR. The Force’s performance hasimproved steadily over the last three years, putting it in the top ten performing forces based on theHMIC 2004 Baseline Report. At the present time, the force is moving rapidly towards an increasinglyneighbourhood focused style of policing and embracing wider use of community support officers asa key element of this strategy.

Dyfed-PowysThrough the £13m workforce modernisation implementation fund, Dyfed-Powys have civilianisedtheir custody functions, employing 15 staff with powers designated under the Police Reform Act, andreleasing an equivalent number of police officers for the front line. As well as putting more officers backon the street to fight crime, the creation of a team of specialists is already leading to more efficient andcost-effective handling of prisoners. The new team has integrated well with local officers who havefound the new system allows them to process prisoners far more quickly, saving them hours ofpaperwork, and letting them get back out on visible patrol.

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4.28 As we set out in Chapter Three, the Governmentsees CSOs as being integral elements of the kindof dedicated neighbourhood policing teams thatwe want to see spread across the country. Thisapproach is already happening in a number offorces. The Metropolitan Police Service forexample has mixed CSO and officerneighbourhood teams. Surrey Police is piloting anintegrated model where CSOs are supervised byexperienced constables. This enables the force tomaintain a greater presence on patrol andprovide a higher level of reassurance tocommunities.

The Metropolitan Police introduced CSOs inSeptember 2002, and now employ over1,800. just over 1,000 of them are funded bylocal authorities and Transport for London.The response to these new officers has beenoverwhelmingly positive, both fromcommunities and from the officers whowork with them. A public survey completedfor the Metropolitan Police found that over75% of London workers and 90% ofresidents welcomed PCSOs. Over 50% ofrespondents felt more reassured about theirsafety as a result of seeing PCSOs on thestreets. In the area where PCSOs weredeployed, street crime offences decreasedby 18.5% over 6 months, Moreover inLondon about 30% of CSOs are fromminority ethnic communities, making amajor contribution to helping theMetropolitan Police better reflect thecommunities it serves.

4.29 Making CSOs a permanent and central part ofneighbourhood policing demands a co-ordinatedapproach to their recruitment, development andrewards. In preparation for the growth in CSOnumbers we will:

• develop, on the basis of the experience ofCSOs so far, a minimum set of powerswhich all CSOs need to possess to play afull part in neighbourhood policing. Thiswill include enforcement powers such asthe power to require a name and address,the power to confiscate alcohol andpowers to issue fixed penalty notices;

• empower forces to be able to grant thepower of detention to CSOs which hasbeen successfully piloted in six forcesand encourage them to do so;

• work with forces and Skills for Justice todevelop role profiles linked to thenational occupational standards. This willenable forces to match recruitment,training and development programmes tothe work that CSOs perform;

• develop national recruitment of CSOs.This will take into account pilotsdeveloped by the Metropolitan Police andothers;

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• create training packages for highereducation colleges for those who have yetto join the service, and nationalinduction and training packages for localdelivery by forces. This will build onpilots developed by Sussex Police andform part of the training package beingdeveloped linking the wider policingfamily with that of officers. We havealready organised a community policingTOGETHER Academy for both communitysupport officers and neighbourhoodpolicing teams. Building on this we will,in March 2005, ensure we reach all CSOsand their key police colleagues through anational TOGETHER AcademyProgramme. Their involvement in theTOGETHER Campaign will ensure thatthey have the tools, the know-how andthe backing to tackle, not tolerate, anti-social behaviour in the communities theyserve;

• support training for supervisors of CSOs,who may be members of police staff orconstables as well as sergeants;

• ensure that terms and conditionsnegotiated in the Police Staff Council3

provide the right rewards to recruit,retain and motivate CSOs and give forcesthe flexibility they need to maximise thebenefits from deploying them;

• examine how best to enhance the careerstructure for CSOs so the best canadvance without necessarily becominguniformed officers; and

• maintain our commitment to nationaland local evaluation and encourage thesharing of expertise and good practiceacross the police service.

4.30 CSOs typically work in a neighbourhood policingrole, providing a high visibility and reassuringpresence. They can already be designated by theirchief officers with a range of powers dependingon decisions made at force level about how theyare to be deployed. These include the power, forexample, to issue fixed penalty notices/penaltynotices for disorder for a range of offencesrelated to anti-social behaviour; detain peoplein certain circumstances; require the name andaddress of a person acting in an anti-socialmanner; and exercise certain powers in respectof vehicle seizure, removal, testing, stopping,searching and checking and wide loads.

4.31 CSO powers are not designed to be the same asthose of a constable which are, and will remain,far more extensive. We will continue, however, toconsider the provision of new powers wherethere is an operational need and where this fitswithin the overall role of CSOs. We will ensurethat they can most effectively perform the tasksthey do best, such as dealing with low levelcriminal acts and anti-social behaviour. Chiefofficers will continue to have discretion todesignate CSOs with additional powers above theproposed new national minimum.

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3 The Police Staff Council is a forum for the agreement of terms and conditions for police staff between the trade unions, PoliceAuthorities and forces and the Home Office.


Developing senior police staff

4.32 In view of the increasingly important role whichpolice staff play in the police service, we need tobe able both to attract from outside and toidentify from within the service members ofpolice staff who have high potential fordevelopment. The Government will look athow to develop similar arrangements forpolice staff to those already available topolice officers under the High PotentialDevelopment Scheme which was introducedin 2002 to support and develop futuresenior police leaders.

4.33 We also recognise the substantial contributionthat many police staff make at very senior levelsin the police service and believe that the supportavailable via the Senior Careers Advisory Service4

should be available to police staff as well asofficers. Greater consistency is also needed inthe appointment of police staff to seniorappointments as has recently been highlightedby HMIC in Modernising the Police Service. Wepropose that the roles of police authoritiesand chief officers in the appointment ofmembers of police staff of ACPO equivalentrank should be the same as those for seniorofficer appointments.

4.34 Once appointed, senior members of police staffincreasingly often have a status equivalent tomembers of ACPO – indeed some are ACPOmembers and are members of forces’ topmanagement teams. A number of directors of HRand finance have this status, and this is to bewelcomed as part of the professionalisation ofstrategic business functions in the police service.Currently, regulations identify a number of non-operational functions which can only be carriedout by officers of ACPO rank. An example is the

role of chief officers in hearing appeals underdisciplinary procedures. We will remove anyregulatory bar which prevents members ofpolice staff from carrying out functionsappropriate to their role as seniormanagers.

Police staff transfer into officer grades

4.35 At present, a member of police staff, for examplea CSO, who wishes to become a sworn officer hasno avenue available to them other than to applyin a competition which is open to the generalpublic. While that member of police staff is likelyto benefit in the tests and assessment centre fromthe skills and experience built up in his or herpolice service, there is no arrangement by whichthey can be appointed ahead of any other suitablyqualified applicant. We wish to promote easiermovement from police staff to police officerstatus for those who wish to and who can meetthe national recruitment standards.

4.36 We will propose in the Police NegotiatingBoard the necessary regulatory changes toenable forces to run separate exercises forpolice staff to become officers, inaccordance with the National RecruitmentStandard, and to appoint successfulcandidates as soon as there are vacancies.We will also look at ways of making themovement from special constable to regularpolice officer status easier for those who wish toand can meet the national standards.

4.37 At the same time we also want to ensure thatcareer structures exist for police staff, includingCSOs, who wish to remain in these roles. We willaccordingly propose in the Police StaffCouncil to review how more effectivecareer structures for police staff might beput in place.

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4 see paragraph 4.61.

Special Constables and Police SupportVolunteers

4.38 A common theme in this paper is that policingthe community is not just the job of the policebut of all of us. We want to encouragecommunities and individuals to work with thepolice to meet their local needs and we want tohelp give them the knowledge, skills, resourcesand opportunities to be active members of thecommunity.

4.39 Police service volunteers – including specialconstables (volunteers with full constabularypowers) and police support volunteers (who haveno powers) – have a direct role to play inreducing crime and the fear of crime, as well ashelping deliver stronger active communities. Wewill increase the number and effectiveness ofpolice service volunteers. We want to support thepolice service in increasing the opportunities forlocal people, groups and businesses to getinvolved, and making better use of the skills andexperience offered.

4.40 We will therefore work with stakeholders to:

• identify and share good practice in therecruitment, management, training anddeployment of volunteers;

• encourage the use of dedicated staff tosupport the implementation of goodpractice. We have already awardedfunding of up to £70,000 per force inEngland and Wales for initiatives to helpincrease numbers and ensure specialconstables are well managed andpurposefully deployed;

• develop role profiles and a trainingprogramme based on nationaloccupational standards for members ofthe wider policing family, includingspecial constables and policesupport volunteers;

• support recruitment and marketingefforts to better publicise police servicevolunteering roles and the personaldevelopment opportunities they give tolocal people and community groups;

• investigate wider roles and specialist usesof volunteers; and

• help forces to establish partnerships withbusinesses, encouraging businesses tosupport staff who volunteer with forces,in recognition of their added trainingand skills.

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4.41 As part of this programme, we will set up,evaluate and spread learning from two pilotsinvestigating specialist IT roles and employersupport initiatives.

Professionalising the workforce4.42 We are committed to professionalising further the

whole police workforce. Officers and staff need tokeep their skills up to date as they progressthrough more structured careers. The newnational occupational standards set out what skillsare needed. A career in the police service shouldbe seen as an opportunity for life-long learningand professional development.

4.43 The components of a modern, professionalsystem for workforce development now exist orare in development: national occupationalstandards, the integrated competency framework,qualifications and professional registers. As theseenter the police service we must ensure that theyconnect properly to create an integrated systemfor managing our people. This requirement hasrecently been highlighted by HMIC inModernising the Police Service. We endorseHMIC’s recommendation to develop a commonmodel of integrated people management and thiswill form the basis of baseline inspection by HMICof force HR management.

Career pathways

4.44 The service has to meet a significant challenge inpreserving the versatility which officers need forthe operational resilience and flexibility of forceswhilst developing the range of skills needed fortoday’s police service. To date, there has beenlittle in terms of a systematic approach to officers’career progression or access to specialisms. Policestaff, on the other hand, have often beenrecruited to specialisms but with no clearpathway to progress into more senior roles withinthe service. There has been no tradition ofaccrediting learning or experience. We want toensure that all those working in the police servicewill have identifiable career pathways in which todevelop their professional skills and have themaccredited with the aim of ensuring that thecompetence of individuals is regularly assessedand maintained throughout their careers, and notjust at the beginning .

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4.45 The Government will therefore definecareer pathways and promote their take-up.The work which we have been taking forward onProfessionalising the Investigative Process is amodel which we think can be applied in otherareas of policing. We will consider developingprofessional registers for the police service,in line with practice in other professions,with the aim of ensuring that the competence ofindividuals is regularly assessed and maintainedthroughout their careers, and not just at thebeginning of them. We will develop a formalqualifications framework for the service,built on work-based assessment againstnational occupational standards. There willbe qualifications for all areas of policing,including operational activities such asinvestigations and other activities such asmanagement.

4.46 We will also review the central provision oftraining to support operational policing, with theaim of ensuring that there is a similar structure oftraining for every stage of careers in operationalpolicing.

4.47 There are already arrangements in place toidentify those with the greatest potential throughthe High Potential Development Scheme. Whilethere is evidence that these arrangements are ingeneral working well, we need to ensure that therecruitment processes for the scheme arestraightforward and streamlined and also that thescheme is able to develop a future pool of leaderswhich properly represents the diversecommunities they will serve. We intendtherefore to review these aspects of thecurrent scheme to see if there are changeswhich should be made.

Recruitment

4.48 All forces have agreed to implement the elementsof the Government’s National RecruitmentStandards (NRS) programme for policerecruitment. This includes a standard applicationform and online application channel(http://www.policecouldyou.gov.uk/) backed up bya national call centre, standard medical, fitness andeyesight tests, and an assessment centre. The NRSis not, however, mandatory at present. We believethat it should be. This will ensure that, as the NRSdevelops, forces will implement new features andupdate procedures in accordance with changinggood practice and legal requirements. We willtherefore introduce proposals in the PoliceAdvisory Board to make recruitment as apolice officer dependent on completion ofthe procedures set out in the NRS.

4.49 The police service remains unusual, if not unique,in developing all its senior officers from those whojoin at the rank of constable. In a changing labourmarket, and against a requirement for morespecialist skills and managerial experience at everylevel, this risks denying the service access to someof the people it needs. Without the ability torecruit directly into officer ranks, the pace ofchange in the composition of promoted ranks willbe slower than it needs to be, whether we arelooking at the kinds of skills which the serviceneeds or its gender and ethnic composition. Thecurrent model also denies the service theopportunity to recruit those who have alreadyprogressed to promoted position in comparablejobs – such as the probation service, HM Customs,financial crime investigation or the armed forces.The Government therefore proposes tointroduce multiple points of entry to thepolice service, and to remove therequirement that all police officers servespecific amounts of time at junior ranksbefore being promoted to more senior ranks.

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4.50 Among police staff, it has long been acceptedpractice to bring people in who have certain skillsand experience in, for example, IT or finance. Wewill extend this principle to officers so that theservice is able to benefit from the experience andexpertise of individuals in, for example,investigation or operational management in othercontexts. We think that suitably qualifiedindividuals could become police officers at anylevel of seniority and undertake the trainingnecessary to allow them to exercise the powersfor the role they will assume. We are at the sametime strongly of the view that experience ofworking on the front line is an essentialfoundation for operational leadership in thepolice service, and will wish to develop inconsultation with the service programmes fordirect entrants which will equip them with thenecessary experience.

4.51 We intend also to look again at graduaterecruitment to the police service. While manygraduates do join the service (31% of thosepassing the assessment centre in 2003-4 weregraduates) there is a widespread view, particularlyamongst chief officers that forces currently recruittoo few of the very best. The Government willtherefore review whether the offer whichthe police service is able to make currentlyto graduates is sufficiently attractive. Wewill look at this particularly in relation toopportunities for accelerated careerdevelopment and whether more can bedone to market police careers moreeffectively, and on a national basis, to thegraduate recruitment market.

Probationer training

4.52 As part of our overall workforce modernisationprogramme, we need to look at developing a coreof initial training for all members of the service –including officers, CSOs and other staff. So far wehave designed a new programme for probationertraining for officers – the Initial Police Learningand Development Programme. Under this newprogramme, forces will be responsible fordelivery of all stages of probationer training, andthe training will therefore be delivered locally –for example, in partnership with a local furtheror higher education college. Wherever possible,training will be non-residential to make it asfamily-friendly and accessible as possible.

4.53 The programme includes extensive work withlocal communities, with members of the publicinvolved in all stages of the training cycle, andinvolves probationers spending extended periodsof time with local community groups. We thinkthis will be vital in terms of underpinning ourapproach to neighbourhood policing. The newprogramme is being piloted in five forces. Therewill be a phased national implementation – on aregion by region basis – between April 2005 andApril 2006. We are also working to linkcompetency based training programmes forspecial constables, CSOs and other membersof the policing family to the probationer packagefor regular officers.

Qualifications

4.54 We believe that everyone in the police serviceshould acquire transferable qualifications on thebasis of their work, and relevant qualificationsacquired before joining should be recognisedwithin the service. We intend to develop this intwo further ways:

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• we will introduce a single nationalqualification for officers who successfullycomplete their probation. Probationers willbe assessed in the workplace against nationaloccupational standards and when they achievethem, they will be awarded a qualification thatis recognised outside the service as well aswithin it. Pre-entry training will be based onthe national occupational standards in order toensure that such training accurately reflects theneeds of the police service. The recentlyestablished Police Licensing and AccreditationBoard will be charged with maintaining qualityassurance of such training;

• we will work with further and highereducation establishments to enablepeople with an interest in policing toundergo relevant training before actuallyjoining a particular force and beginningtheir careers. This follows best practice inother professions including health andeducation. We will also provide for theaccreditation of prior experience and learning(APEL).

Performance and Development Reviews

4.55 The effective use of performance anddevelopment reviews (PDRs) is central to ourwork on learning and development specificallyand workforce modernisation more widely. It willincrease in importance as learning anddevelopment is tailored to the needs of theindividual, and as work-based assessment isincreasingly carried out against nationaloccupational standards.

4.56 The PDR scheme will be used to work updevelopment plans for individual officers andstaff, allowing training to be more preciselytargeted on their specific needs. The PDR process

is based on the integrated competencyframework. Technology can have a major rolehere. The new Managed Learning Environmentfor the police service – now being rolled out bythe National Centre for Applied LearningTechnologies in Centrex – will be used to supportpeople in making greater use of PDRs, whichshould not be the preserve of HR professionals.All line managers should be using them withtheir staff.

4.57 Since the introduction of a national PDR schemefor both officers and police staff, the use of PDRshas improved. But there is still much to do andwe wish to accelerate this process. We willtherefore overhaul the PDR scheme withthe aim of making it clearer, more robustand easier to use. We will use the PolicePerformance Assessment Framework (PPAF)to monitor the use of PDRs by forces.

Promotion

4.58 Promotion to sergeant and inspector has formany years been based largely on examinations.This is now considered by the service to beinflexible and to take too little account of actualperformance on the job as opposed to theoreticalknowledge. While there is clearly a basicminimum of knowledge which those promoted tosergeant and inspector must have, we want togive much more weight to actual performance.Accordingly we will extend work-basedassessment throughout the service as analternative to the existing examinations5.The new promotion arrangements will be basedon performance and development reviews andassessment against national occupationalstandards.

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5 these examinations are known as OSPRE II.


Leadership development

4.59 Strong and effective leadership at all levels of thepolice service is critical to all our work onworkforce modernisation and to the success ofour wider police reform agenda. We haveestablished Core and Senior LeadershipDevelopment Programmes to ensure that there isa clear structure for the provision of training onleadership and management for officers and staffat all ranks and grades.

4.60 We want to strengthen this provision for front lineand middle managers, and for Basic CommandUnit (BCU) commanders in particular. TheGovernment will develop enhanced trainingleading to a specialist qualification forpeople wishing to take on BCU commanderroles. Effective people management is anessential part of leadership and forces shouldassess people management skills at all levels aspart of the PDR process. Over time, we thinkthat there should be a mandatoryqualification for superintendents seeking tobecome BCU commanders. We will consider arange of options for this, with the aim ofintroducing a qualification which would berecognised outside the service as well as within it.We will work towards having this qualification inplace within three years, with all BCU commandersbeing appropriately qualified within five.

4.61 The Government will strengthen theway in which the service identifiessenior talent. The Senior Careers AdvisoryService will be aimed at chief officersand superintendents with the potential tobecome chief officers, and their equivalentsamong senior police staff. It will support theseexisting and potential senior leaders in managingand developing their careers, offering a range ofdevelopment experiences and careers advice. TheSCAS will be staffed by HR specialists from withinthe service and outside. It will ensure that there isa large pool from which potential senior leaderscan be drawn. The service will learn from otherorganisations’ experience and explore jointdevelopment opportunities with them.Secondments and exchanges with otherorganisations in the public and private sectorswill be a feature of this work .

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4.62 The Government is also committed to workingwith partners to devise new arrangements for thesenior appointments process. These will need toensure that the very best leaders apply for seniorposts and that selection procedures are objective,fair, rigorous and appropriate for thesechallenging roles. In establishing new procedures,we will look to good practice in otherorganisations, both public and private, andconsider how best to involve independentrepresentation in each stage of the process.

4.63 Following the Police Negotiating Board agreementon chief officers’ pay and conditions, theGovernment proposes to revise the PDR schemefor chief officers to give police authorities aleading role in operating it.

Retention and leaving

4.64 Providing excellent pension arrangements forpolice officers and police staff will remain a keypriority for the Government. The current pensionscheme is a valuable one but it is inflexible.Because it is based on a 30 year career it isexpensive and fails to make full use of the skillsand experience of officers in their late 40s andearly 50s. The current scheme is still based on anexpectation that police officers will retire at thevery point in their careers when many are makingtheir most sustained and valuable contribution.The present arrangements also look increasinglyout of line with a world in which people are livinglonger and enjoying healthier and longerworking lives.

4.65 That is why the Government published proposalsin December 2003 for a new police pensionscheme based on a 35 year career rather than 30years and improving a number of aspects of thecurrent pension arrangements includingextending benefits to unmarried and same sexpartners. Under these arrangements, which will

take effect in April 2006, existing officers will havethe choice of whether to remain in the existingscheme or transfer to the new one. New recruitswill automatically join the new arrangements. Thischange will represent significant progress.

4.66 In addition to introducing a new pension schemethe Government is reviewing the current systemof pensions financing. At present police forceshave to bear the cost of retired officers’ pensionsout of their annual budget, with the result thatthere is no clear distinction between operationaland pensions expenditure. This undermineseffective financial planning and the delivery ofpolicing outcomes. This system also exposesforces to a rise in pensions costs due to theexpected increase in the number of retirementsover the coming years. The Government isconsidering the practicalities of a new systemunder which police pensions would continue tobe administered locally but would be paid out ofa separate pension account funded by employerand employee contributions and topped up asnecessary by central Government. The proposedchange would take much of present pensions’funding out of the grant formula, leaving in onlyfunding to support the cost of employercontributions. The Government recognises theimportance of any change in the funding formulabeing introduced as smoothly and fairly aspossible. It plans to consult on the detailedproposals next year with a view to bringing in thenew finance system in April 2006, at the sametime as the new pension scheme.

4.67 We wish to build on the initial experience of theexisting 30+ scheme pilots to retain the skills ofour most experienced officers. Experience of thescheme has shown that there is considerableinterest amongst both officers and managers in ascheme enabling those eligible to retire after 30years with maximum benefits to return to serve as

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a sworn officer after taking their pension lumpsum. In the light of the comments from forcemanagers in response to a recent survey, theHome Office will report back to the PoliceNegotiating Board with recommendations on thefuture development of the 30+ scheme by April2005. In the light of the view of forces, we willassess whether changes are needed to the 30+arrangments. Any revised arrangements will needto represent value for money, and not simplyinvolve those who would have stayed on in anycase, and will also need to be consistent with thefront-line requirements of forces.

4.68 Just as we are considering the way and level atwhich people enter the service as part of ourwork on career pathways, we will also be lookingat the way and time at which people leave it. TheGovernment believes that good management andperformance appraisal can do much to ensure theeffective deployment and career development ofofficers. We will work with the service to ensurethat systems support management in dealingrobustly with performance issues.

Discipline review

4.69 It is essential that disciplinary arrangements are inplace that meet the needs of a modern policeservice. A fundamental review is currently beingundertaken into police disciplinary arrangementsand will consider the extent to which theyprovide a proportionate, just and effectiveprocess for the disposal of conduct and complaintmatters. The review will report to the HomeSecretary in December 2004. It will includerecommendations as to how existingarrangements might be improved with particularattention to cost effectiveness, timeliness, non-discrimination, minimising bureaucracy and theprovision of adequate protection to individualofficers. Police stakeholders are activelyparticipating in the review and their engagement

will be crucial to its success.

Diversity4.70 It remains a fundamental challenge for the police

service to ensure that the composition of itsworkforce is truly representative of thecommunities it serves. But the Governmentbelieves this is vital if the service is to commandincreased public trust and confidence – and seethe kind of deeper and stronger level ofengagement with communities on which thedevelopment of a truly citizen-focused service, towhich this policy paper aspires, is to be realised.

4.71 There are a number of legal imperativesunderpinning this approach. For example, theemployment provisions of the DisabilityDiscrimination Act were applied to police officersin October 2003. This will facilitate theemployment of able, competent people who havepreviously been barred from the police service onaccount of a medical condition. Other regulationsmake it illegal to discriminate against people onthe basis of their sexual orientation and/orreligious belief in employment and vocationaltraining. Both apply to all employment in thepolice service. The Government believes that it isimportant to ensure that the service is drawingon the broadest range of people, skills andexperience available to it.

Race equality

4.72 The Government’s race equality targets commitpolice forces to achieving ethnic minorityrepresentation for officers and staff by 2009 inproportion to the economically active ethnicminority population in the force area. Whilemany forces are on track to achieve this, thechallenge for some of the largest urban forcesis considerable.

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4.73 But although progress may not be as rapid as weonce hoped, that is not a reason for making lesseffort. On the contrary, the Government and thepolice service should learn from other moresuccessful sectors, build on what works anddevelop new initiatives to address race equalityissues in the service.

4.74 A central element of this will be the service’sresponse to the Commission for Racial Equality’sinquiry into racism in the police. TheCommission’s interim report6 identified a numberof issues in relation to forces’ race equalityschemes, the impact of elements of the nationalrecruitment standards programme on raceequality, and training and discipline procedures.We are working with the police service inresponse to all these issues. But it is not sufficientfor the service merely to be reactive to externalpressures. The public needs to be reassured that

the Government and the service are activelyworking to address issues of racism in the service,such as those illustrated starkly by last year’s BBCprogramme The Secret Policeman.

4.75 To this end, the Government welcomes theAssociation of Chief Police Officers’ proposal todevelop, with the Association of Police Authoritiesand the Home Office, a joint confidence andequality strategy. We welcome also the strongline which ACPO has taken on membership oforganisations whose aims or pronouncementscontradict forces’ race equality duty7. The HomeSecretary has proposed to the PoliceAdvisory Board to make changes inregulations and determinations so that amember of a police force shall not belongto the BNP, Combat 18 or the National Frontor any other organisation whoseconstitution, aims, objectives orpronouncements are incompatible with theduty imposed by section 71 of the RaceRelations Act 1976.

4.76 In January 2004, the Home Secretary, working onthe advice of the Stephen Lawrence SteeringGroup published Breaking Through, a guide togood practice on the recruitment, retention andprogression of ethnic minority officers and policestaff. It remains the Government’s objective thatall forces should apply the practice identified inBreaking Through and that Her Majesty’sInspectorate of Constabulary should use this aspart of its baseline assessment of forces. We wishhowever to go further and implement newmeasures to accelerate the pace of change.

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6 CRE ‘A formal investigation of the police service in England and Wales’ June 2004

7 ACPO’s statement of 28 July: No member of the Police service, whether police officer or police staff, may be a member of anorganisation whose constitution, aims, objectives or pronouncements contradict the general duty to promote race equality. Thisspecifically includes the British National Party


4.77 It is not the Government’s view, however, thatmeasures which would provide the police servicewith an exemption from any provisions of theRace Relations (Amendment) Act in respect ofrecruitment would be helpful in increasing trustand confidence on the part of any section of thecommunity. The recruitment process to thepolice service must be fair and open and have noadverse impact on any group. Standards of entryto the service must be maintained at a high leveland must meet the operational requirements ofthe service.

4.78 But there are a number of specific changes theGovernment does propose to make. We will:

• develop standards for language skillsother than in English so that forces maytake the obvious advantage of havingthose skills into account in recruitingwhere this is operationally justified. Suchcandidates will of course need to meetthe other elements of the nationalrecruitment standard;

• establish a national panel of assessorsfrom ethnic minority communities andinclude a regulatory requirement inNational Recruitment Standards that allassessment and selection panels includerepresentatives from ethnic minoritycommunities and that where insufficientlocal assessors are available, members ofthe national panel take part in theassessment centres;

• introduce a standard exit interviewprocedure to help us understand whypeople are leaving the service,particularly in the first six months(where ethnic minority recruits aredisproportionately represented);

• work with the National Black PoliceAssociation in support of its developmentplan and strengthen the support networkfor ethnic minority officers;

• run specific exercises to encouragemembers of ethnic minorities withsuccessful careers in other professions toapply for lateral entry to senior ranks inthe service. They will of course berequired to meet the same standards forentry as majority community candidates;and

• review our promotion and progressionprocedures to ensure they are fair,transparent and have no adverse impacton any group.

Gender equality

4.79 There has been an encouraging improvement inthe number of women recruited to the policeservice. Nevertheless, because of the historicallegacy of low levels of female recruitment, only20% of police officers are women. This comparesto 62% of police staff and 39% of communitysupport officers.

4.80 The Government will seek to improveperformance on the recruitment, retention andprogression of women. We will work closely withthe British Association of Women Police to ensurewomen have the support and opportunities toenable them to reach their potential. Part of thisis about seeking to ensure the police service isseen as an attractive career option for women andthat the working environment is professional andsupportive. We need to step up our efforts andconfront individual sexist behaviour and addressthe systems which adversely affect recruitment,retention and progression;

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4.81 There are a number of specific elements to ourapproach. The Government will:

• review barriers to the recruitment ofwomen. Wherever possible, we will makepolice training, including foundation andprobationer training, non-residential andavailable on a part-time basis. Family-friendly, flexible working patterns shouldbe available as a matter of course;

• examine the stages of the promotionprocess to identify barriers toprogression and take steps to removethem. In particular, we will examinewhat is needed to improve supportand progression for ethnic minoritywomen officers; and

• consult the service on the introduction ofchallenging progression targets to ensuregreater representation of women athigher levels of the service and on theHigh Potential Development scheme.

Police Race and Diversity Learning andDevelopment Programme

4.82 The Government believes that the approach andethos outlined above must be reflected and, inturn, reinforced by learning and developmentprogrammes within the police service. To supportthis approach, we will publish a strategy forusing learning and development to improvepolice performance in race and diversityover the next five years.

4.83 The strategy will mark a significant departurefrom previous work in this area by makingindividuals responsible for their performance inrace and diversity, for improving and assessingindividual, team and force performance in raceand diversity – and for making a clear linkbetween the two. Training in race and diversitywill no longer be seen as separate from all otherpolice training and development.

4.84 In keeping with the direction for policing in thiscountry that this paper sets out, the strategy willemphasise the importance of communityengagement in policing. The new strategy usesthe national occupational standards for race anddiversity – with a requirement that everyone inthe service is assessed against these – and againstthe Policing Performance Assessment Frameworkand Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’sbaseline assessments to ensure that the service isheld accountable for performance in this vitalarea. The Government proposes additionally,to place a new duty on police authorities topromote diversity within the police forceand authority (see Chapter Five).

Officer and staff representativeorganisations

4.85 The Government believes that collectivediscussion on the working environment, rewardand other issues affecting all those in the serviceis to be encouraged. Engagement with the staffassociations and unions has contributed realvalue to the development of policy and themanagement of change in the service, and theGovernment wishes to continue to encourageactive engagement by all members of the servicein their staff associations and trade unions.

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4.86 Police officers will continue to have specificinterests in issues of pay and conditions whichare determined by the Police Negotiating Board(PNB). But there are also issues – many of whichare discussed in the Police Advisory Board (PAB)– which are of equal interest to police staff. Inaddition, as police staff come to exercise anincreasing range of police powers, the issues onwhich they may wish to be represented is likely tooverlap increasingly with those of interest toofficers. Consequently, the Government wishesto explore with the staff associations andunions, and with the Independent chair ofthe PAB and PNB how to formalise therelationship between police staff unionsand the PAB.

Pay reform4.87 Further pay reforms must support the operational

requirements of the police service and delivervalue for money in terms of improvedperformance. In order to maintain themomentum of workforce reform we willcontinue to develop through the PoliceNegotiating Board and the Police Staff Councilpay arrangements that will:

• meet the need to recruit, progress and retainofficers with the right competencies;

• reward officers who deliver national and localpriorities;

• reward in the right proportions the demandsof the role, skills and performance;

• acknowledge the changing requirements ofpolice roles and ranks, recognising in particularthe leadership role of many constables;

• support police career pathways and multi-levelentry to the service, within a coherent rankstructure;

• meet the needs of a more diverse workforce;

• recognise relevant accredited qualificationsthat contribute to effective delivery of requiredoutcomes;

• reflect local needs within a national framework;

• give the right degree of autonomy to localmanagement in pay decisions, within a nationalframework, and

• minimise the bureaucracy associated with thedelivery of these arrangements.

Deployment4.88 Increasing the flexibility of deployment of police

officers and police staff is important both foreffective policing and for the health of officersand staff themselves. We are therefore publishingalongside this paper a study of rostering anddeployment in response teams in seven policeforces backed up by a national survey of all forces(see www.policereform.gov.uk). The findingssuggest that there are real benefits to be had frombetter management of shift patterns. A variableshift arrangement built around accurate demandprofiling can provide almost 70% more officers onduty at peak times than a shift pattern with a flatsupply. On the basis of the sample, it is possiblethat if all forces moved to an assessment based onlocal profiling over 2,000 more officers could beon duty at peak times. Such arrangements havethe potential to make it easier for forces tomanage court attendance, case handling andovertime. They potentially generate less fatigueand better health and safety outcomes than12 hour shifts do. Following this study, theGovernment will develop proposals forchange in deployment arrangements inconsultation with the police service,including the staff associations andtrade unions.

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Sickness absence4.89 The Government will build on the

improvements already delivered on policesickness absence by the introduction ofmore stretching targets. New targets in theNational Policing Plan for police officers (8 daysper year) and staff (9 days per year) challenge allforces to match the performance of the best.

Human resource capability andperformance measurement

4.90 Delivering a skilled, well-motivated workforce is achallenge for all managers and policy makers inthe police service. The Government willstrengthen the service’s HR managementcapability by building the skills and knowledgeboth of line managers and HR departments.Developing and implementing a pay andworkforce strategy will, over time, be a majorfunction of the new National PolicingImprovement Agency that we discuss inChapter Five.

4.91 But change must not, however, await the arrivalof the Agency. The development and spread ofthe kind of dedicated neighbourhood policingteams that we discuss in Chapter Three forexample will mean many police officers becomingline managers for the first time. To meet theseneeds, we will work with the police service tosupport the development of HR managementcapability. We will encouraging forces toassess people management skills inPerformance and Development Reviews atall levels; develop a competency frameworkfor HR managers; and improve access toprofessional training for HR specialists.

4.92 The HR capability of forces is already measuredin the organisational capability of the PolicingPerformance Assessment Framework and HerMajesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s baselineassessment. The Police Standards Unit has carriedout detailed work to improve HR capability insome of the forces with which it has worked.The Government will develop measureswithin the Assessment Framework toreflect a broader range of HR activities –in particular the effectiveness of force PDRsystems – and Her Majesty’s Inspectorateof Constabulary will continue to refine itsbaseline assessment activity in this area.We will continue to work with the police serviceto ensure that good practice lessons are sharedwith forces.

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Chapter Five: Ensuringeffectiveness


Chapter Five: Ensuring effectiveness

Introduction5.1 In this Chapter, we explore further issues which

are central to the success of the Government’sdrive to increase the responsiveness andcustomer service culture of police forces inEngland and Wales, and build a new relationshipbetween the police and the public through the

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Key proposals:

• a more tightly focused National Policing Plan;

• a new Code of Practice to help embed the systematic application of the National Intelligence Model;

• a new grading mechanism for police performance – with new arrangements for rewarding successand addressing under-performance;

• a new National Policing Improvement Agency and the rationalisation of existing national policingbodies;

• a review of police force structures;

• a review of the partnership provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;

• changes to strengthen the membership and role of police authorities.


• a clear national framework which supports locally responsive policing;

• intelligence-led policing happening at every level;

• police forces and authorities having a sharp focus on performance

• the police service having a culture of challenge and self-improvement;

• policing having the right structure and support to meet the challenges of

today’s world;

• clearer, stronger methods to ensure all communities enjoy responsive, citizen-

focused policing.

spread of dedicated neighbourhood policingacross the country.

5.2 As this paper indicated at its outset, theGovernment recognises that neighbourhoodpolicing cannot be seen as an activity which isisolated from the rest of policing which happens


iv. having clearer, more transparent and strongermethods to ensure that those who areresponsible, at every level, for delivering goodpolicing and reducing crime and anti-socialbehaviour within communities, andresponding to the needs of the public whomthey serve, are held effectively to account fortheir performance in doing so.

5.4 These issues are inter-linked. We explore them,in turn, below.

The overall framework for policingResponsive local policing within a nationalstrategic framework

5.5 The Government has a clear role in setting thenational direction and strategic framework forpolicing in England and Wales. We also believe itis Government’s role to establish priorities andstandards to ensure equity in the provision ofpolicing services for all communities in thiscountry. This policy paper is part of the processof setting the direction for today’s police service.The direction is one which has the support ofthe leadership of the police service.

5.6 The national strategic framework for policing inEngland and Wales is set out in the NationalPolicing Plan which we proposed in ourDecember 2001 policy paper and which,following the Police Reform Act 2002, theGovernment is required to publish annually.1

This sets out minimum standards against whichpolicing should be delivered locally. The last Planpublished in November 2003 set out five keypriorities with two underpinning themes for

at Basic Command Unit, police force, nationaland, increasingly, international level. Effective,intelligence-led policing at all these levels is vitalto further reduce crime and anti-social behaviourand ensure safety, security and stability in ourcommunities. It is a pre-requisite for building theresponsive, citizen-focused police service –which enjoys increased public trust andconfidence.

5.3 The Government’s overall approach is based on:

i. having a clear national direction and strategicframework for policing which enables policeforces to be responsive to particular localneeds but which also ensures thatcommunities across the country enjoy corenational standards of policing; while at thesame time recognising that the challenges of21st century society and criminality mean thatnational consistency in certain policingpractices, such as the use of IT and thecollection and sharing of intelligence, isessential;

ii. a continued focus on the systematic use ofthe National Intelligence Model and on policeperformance to reduce crime and anti-socialbehaviour – with rewards for goodperforming police forces, support forthose that need it but, in the last resort,intervention in cases where communities arebeing demonstrably failed by their force orpolice authority;

iii. developing a true culture of self-improvementin the police service; and having the rightstructures, funding, powers, science andtechnological support to tackle the veryconsiderable challenges of today’s world; and

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1 By virtue of section 1 of the Police Reform Act 2002.


policing.2 Forces’ performance in tackling bothlocal and national issues is measured by what isknown as the Policing Performance AssessmentFramework.3

5.7 The next National Policing Plan will be publishedshortly, following consultation with policeorganisations (principally the Association of ChiefPolice Officers and the Association of PoliceAuthorities), criminal justice partners, andcommunity and victims representatives. Itsdevelopment has been informed by the contentof the Home Office five year Strategic Planpublished in July 2004;4 the new set of HomeOffice Public Service Agreements announced inthe Spending Review 2004 and the Association ofChief Police Officers’ recent National StrategicAssessment which sets out a comprehensivepicture of current, emerging and longer-termpolicing priorities.5

5.8 The forthcoming National Policing Plan willcomplement the approach set out in thispaper and will be more strategic andconcise than previous Plans. As a startingpoint, the Home Office’s new Public ServiceAgreement target to reduce crime by a further15% by 2007-08 – which was set out in the HomeOffice five year strategie plan in July 2004 andwhich will be reflected in the forthcomingNational Policing Plan – is less prescriptive thanbefore (targets previously required the reductionof burglary, robbery and vehicle crime by specificpercentages each).

5.9 The Government intends that the forthcomingPlan will set out five clear strategic outcomeswhich the Government sees as its priorities.These will reflect the kind of things we believethe public most wants to see – a moreresponsive police service for example; overallcrime – including violent and drug-related crime– being reduced; anti-social behaviour anddisorder being tackled. We will expect theseoutcomes to be reflected in all police forces andpolice authorities’ local plans. But it will be forindividual forces and authorities to determinethe weight to be given to each priority, basedon local need. And it will be for forces andauthorities to take appropriate action to tackleparticular local problems which may not affectother areas in the same way – and whichrecognises the difference between policing urbanand largely rural areas.

5.10 The forthcoming National Policing Plan willtherefore support the approach in this paperfor the development of a deeper, strongerconnection between communities and the policewho serve them. It will set the clear overallnational framework within which local policing –responsive to particular local needs – is deliveredto the public.

The need for national consistency in someareas of policing

5.11 The Government remains committed to seeingpolicing delivered through responsive localpolice forces. We are not persuaded that the

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2 The five priorities were – the provision of a citizen focused police service; tackling anti-social behaviour and disorder; continuing toreduce burglary, vehicle crime, robbery and drug related crime; combatting serious and organised crime; and increasing the numberof offences brought to justice. The two underpinning themes were community engagement and countering terrorism.

3 See Appendix II.

4 Confident Communities in a Secure Britain (Cm 6287).

5 A summary is available at www.acpo.police.uk

establishment of a national police service is theright direction for policing in this country. Wetalk more about police force structures inparagraphs 5.62–5.64 below. But the Governmentrecognises that the nature of crime, thesophistication of criminality and changes in theways we all communicate has transformed theenvironment in which policing now operates.To meet these challenges and ensure theprotection, safety and security of the public, theGovernment believes that there are some areasof policing activity in which there is a pressingneed for national consistency – where it makesno sense for things to be done in different waysacross the current 43 force structure in Englandand Wales.

5.12 Recent events have thrown this issue into sharprelief. The Report by Sir Michael Bichardpublished in June 2004 following the Sohammurders – and those terrible events themselves –show the importance of the police’s role in childprotection and starkly illustrate the dangersinherent in police forces handling intelligenceand information in different ways.6 We will heedthe lessons from Bichard and the Soham case.In the light of the Bichard Report, theGovernment is committed to:

• introducing a statutory Code of Practiceon police information management bythe end of 2004;

• implementing a national IT system forhandling and sharing police intelligenceby 2007;

• overhauling existing vetting procedures;and

• developing more integrated andconsistent arrangements for checkingthe suitability of those wishing to workwith children.

5.13 The Government considers that in the area ofscience and technology – which is vital tosupporting effective policing, reducingbureaucracy and making policing more efficient –more needs to be done to ensure nationalconsistency and implementation. This will, overtime, become a key responsibility of the newNational Policing Improvement Agency, which wediscuss in paragraphs 5.42–5.55 below.

5.14 The Government does not see its approach ofpursuing national consistency in some areas ofpolicing activity as being at odds with theemphasis which this paper places on local policeforce responsiveness. Rather, we see it assupporting and protecting local policing.We explore the related issues around greatercollaboration and co-operation between forces,particularly in terms of tackling cross-border(or ‘level 2’) crime, in paragraphs 5.56–5.61 ofthis Chapter below.

Intelligence and Performance5.15 Intelligence-led policing (through the national

adoption of the National Intelligence Model) andpolice performance have been, and will continue,to be at the heart of the Government’s overallapproach to reducing crime and anti-socialbehaviour and building a better police service inthis country.

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6 The Bichard Inquiry Report – available at www.bichardinquiry.org.uk/report


National Intelligence Model – a cornerstoneof operational policing

5.16 The National Intelligence Model has becomecrucial to the success of modern operationalpolicing in England and Wales – as foreshadowedin our December 2001 policy paper on policereform. The model was developed from withinthe police service itself as a new approach toprofessionally managing intelligence to helpdirect police operations. It has been endorsed bythe Association of Chief Police Officers, validatedby Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary,and adopted by every force in the country. Itsapproach works against every level of crime fromanti-social behaviour and disorder atneighbourhood level through to seriousorganised crime at police force level and beyond.

5.17 The Government regards the NationalIntelligence Model as providing a cornerstone onwhich policing in the 21st century should bebuilt. In line, specifically, with the direction theGovernment wants to see the police servicetravel that we explore in Chapter One of thispaper, we believe that the model is vital in theservice moving away from being overly reactiveto being more proactive – with betteridentification of crime hotspots and bettertargeting of prolific offenders. And with thedevelopment of a more citizen-focused policeservice and spread of dedicated neighbourhoodpolicing across the country, the kind ofintelligence received from communities will helpdirect police resources in the most effective andefficient way possible, whilst also responding tothe needs and priorities of local communities.

5.18 The National Intelligence Model can also be usedin the context of partnership work to reducecrime and disorder within communities. This is

already happening in some areas (for examplethe Greater Manchester Against Crimepartnership business model – which is acomplete system for partnership working – isclosely based on the National Intelligence Modeland applies its principles in a partnershipcontext). We would like to see this approachtaken up more widely.

5.19 The Government will continue to improve anddevelop the National Intelligence Model toensure that police forces and the public benefitfrom this intelligence-led approach to policing.We want to ensure that the model is trulyembedded within forces. The Government willintroduce a new Code of Practice to ensurethat the National Intelligence Model is usedas effectively as possible and that the legalframework within which it must be appliedis understood by all. Her Majesty’sInspectorate of Constabulary, through theirinspection activity, will ensure that all forces aremaking the maximum possible use of it.

Police performance – why it matters

5.20 Beyond choosing where to live, people have noeffective choice about the type of police servicethey have in the way that, elsewhere in thepublic sector, parents can choose schools forexample. Yet at a time when the Government hasdelivered a sustained and major programme ofinvestment in the police service and provided forrecord police numbers, it is clearly moreimportant than ever that it is satisfied that tax-payers’ money is being well spent and that thepolice service of England and Wales is responsiveto the needs of those it serves. The Governmenttherefore regards it as important that it has anoverview of how well police forces and the Basic

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Command Units within forces are doing in termsof, for example, reducing crime, investigatingcrime and using their resources. The PoliceStandards Unit within the Home Office, whichthe Home Secretary established in June 2001,carries out this overview and its assessments arepublished for the public to see in the annualpublication of the Police Performance Monitors.7

5.21 Further background on how police performanceis assessed is contained in Appendix II.

Next steps on performance

5.22 An unprecedented amount of high-quality,sophisticated information about policeperformance is now available to Government,police forces, police authorities, Crime andDisorder Reduction Partnerships and the public.The Government will continue to maintain asharp focus on performance – which is deliveringreal results in terms of driving down crime andincreasing public safety. The Police StandardsUnit will retain a pivotal role in assessing and

Police Standards UnitOver 2003-04, the forces with which thePolice Standards Unit was engagedreduced volume crime by 13.3% – twicethe rate of other forces in England andWales – and 3 of the 5 largest reductions incrime across the 43 forces were in thePolice Standards Unit’s target forces.

driving performance across the board.

5.23 This step change in the development of aperformance culture within policing is anothercrucial cornerstone on which the kind ofresponsive, citizen-focused police service wedescribe in this policy paper will be built. Wehave already set out (in Chapter Three) changeswe propose to make to the way policeperformance is assessed to support thisapproach – through measuring public satisfactionfor example. But there are some other specificperformance-related changes that theGovernment proposes to make – which are setout in the following paragraphs.

Providing information to the public

5.24 In Chapter Three of this paper, we set out ourproposals for the kind of minimum standards ofinformation about policing that all householdsshould expect to receive. These should betailored to local needs. At a national level, theGovernment has already taken important stepsto provide the public with an overview of theperformance of all 43 police forces in Englandand Wales through the annual publication of thenational Police Performance Monitors. Thepublication of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofConstabulary’s baseline assessments8 has alsoproved a significant step forward in generatingan understanding of which forceshave performed well and on which aspects oftheir service.

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7 Available at www.policereform.gov.uk

8 See Appendix II.


Improving detection ratesThe Government is committed to catchingand convicting offenders through a morejoined-up criminal justice system. Underthe terms of the new Public ServiceAgreement targets, the aim is to bring1.25 million offences to justice each yearby 2007-08.9

The police will be important contributorsto the delivery of this goal. TheGovernment is clear that fundamental todelivering “brought to justice” outcomes isimproving the rate and quality of sanctiondetections.10

Sanction detection rates in many forcesare too low and there are markedperformance variations across forces.A comprehensive programme of work isunderway, led by the Police StandardsUnit, to improve performance on sanctiondetections. Early improvements in thesanction detection rate are already beingwitnessed but there is much further to go.

The Government is clear that securingmore offences brought to justice andenhancing the number of sanctiondetections must not be at the expense ofreducing crime. Experience isdemonstrating, however, that crimereduction and enhanced sanctiondetections performance can be achievedsimultaneously.

5.25 By summer 2005, the Government will havebrought together data from the system used tomeasure police performance (the PolicingPerformance Assessment Framework) and HMICbaseline assessments to give a common view ofthe performance of all 43 police forces. Theseassessments have become accepted as thorough,comprehensive and balanced views of how wellpolicing is being delivered. But their multi-facetednature can make it difficult to communicateclearly a straightforward, summarised assessmentof a force’s performance. By the time of the nextpublication of the Police Performance Monitors inautumn 2005, the Government will haveconsidered options which will enable us topublish a single overall grading for eachpolice force in England and Wales. This willnot be about producing a ‘league table’ of forces.We intend that forces be grouped into fourbandings of performance.

Freedom and control5.26 The process of arriving at an overall grading of

police performance that we describe above willenable the Government to identify those forcesgraded as ‘excellent’ and reward themaccordingly. A key principle of our approach tomaking policing better is striking the rightbalance between providing greater local freedomand ‘earned autonomy’ to strong performerswhilst, at the other end of the spectrum, havingappropriate means of intervention, to supportforces and communities, where performancefalls short.

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9 Brought to justice means that the offence resulted in a caution, conviction, penalty notice or was admitted by the offender, whoasked for the offence to be taken into consideration by the court (TIC), and signed a TIC acceptance form. Formal warnings (alsoknown as street warnings) for the possession of cannabis are also included. Cautions include reprimands and final warnings tojuveniles where a caution would previously have been given, and conditional cautions. The crimes that count towards achieving theoffences brought to justice target are notifiable (recorded) offences, plus offences of resisting or obstructing a constable.

10 Notifiable criminal offences cover a wider spectrum of criminal activities from homicide to minor theft that are recorded by allpolice forces. A sanction detection is a notifiable criminal offence for which an individual has been charged to appear before a court;summonsed to appear before a court; had the offence taken into consideration (TIC) at court when pleading guilty to a substantiveand similar offence; formally cautioned for the offence; or a youth reprimand/final warning.

5.27 The Government’s approach is based on:

• offering greater freedom and autonomy wherepolice forces and Basic Command Units haveearned this through effective performance;

• providing more intensive support – via thePolice Standards Unit and others – whereperformance concerns or other needs(nationally or locally) require it; and

• intervening to ensure minimum standards ofservice to communities on those limitedoccasions where this is necessary.

Freedoms for the best performers5.28 For those forces graded ‘excellent’, the

Government proposes to provide a general‘inspection break’, for rolling 12-monthperiods. This will mean that those forces willreceive no inspection or monitoring from HerMajesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary – otherthan for exceptional purposes. HMIC will alsograde the degree of their inspection activity sothat forces along the positive end of the ‘good-to-poor’ continuum receive a lighter touchinspection regime (and vice versa).

5.29 The Government proposes that forcesgraded ‘excellent’ will also benefit fromadditional funding and freedom on targets.Continued benefit from such freedoms will beconditional on sustained performance. We willbring forward detailed proposals on both areaswhich we intend should commence by financialyear 2006-07.

Powers of Intervention5.30 At the time when the existing statutory

arrangements for taking action where policeforces (or parts of them) are underperforming(in sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Police Reform Act2002) were enacted, concerns were expressed asto how they would operate in practice. In thetwo years since Royal Assent, the Governmenthas gained considerable experience in terms ofcollaborating and working proactively with forceswhich have a performance gap (so-called ‘target’forces). This process has, we believe, served toreassure the police service and police authoritiesabout the measured approach taken toengagement and intervention.

5.31 The Police Standards Unit has been engaged,on a non-statutory basis, with a number oftarget forces to help improve their performance.This represents a departure in terms of how thecentre does business with the police service. Andthis activity represents an interim intervention ofa kind not readily envisaged when the powers inthe 2002 Act were first framed.

5.32 The Police Standards Unit engagements haveproved successful in helping forces to turnaround their performance. However, theGovernment has been concerned about thelength of time it can take forces and authoritiesto put effective improvement plans intooperation. However, the existing statutoryintervention powers in the Police Reform Act2002 are sometimes perceived as a ‘nuclear’option. By way of improving and bringing clarityto the present position, the Governmenttherefore proposes to revise the existingstatutory powers to take remedial action

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where police forces or Basic CommandUnits are underperforming. We proposeputting the collaborative engagement andimprovement process on a statutoryfooting; with powers of compulsion (i.e.intervention) arising only where sufficientimprovement fails to transpire.

5.33 The Government sees the new process workingas follows:

• Stage One – where a force has been assessedas underperforming, there would be animmediate requirement on the force andpolice authority to draw up an improvementplan with a timetable for specificimprovements. This would, we believe, injectmomentum into the engagement process.

• Stage Two – this would arise only if theforce/authority failed to deliver adequately onthe improvement plan. In such a scenario,powers of compulsion (along the lines of theexisting section 4 of the Police Reform Act2002) would come into play.

What triggers this process?

5.34 Currently, the Police Reform Act 2002 requires anadverse report from HMIC to ‘trigger’ the use ofthe existing intervention power.11 As part of theprocess for amending the way the powerworks, the Government proposes to revisethe trigger to bring it more into line withthe wider set of information sources –other than an HMIC inspection alone –which now inform our views of police forceperformance. Our proposal is that whilst theintervention decision would no longer be basedon an adverse HMIC report alone, the HomeSecretary would be under a duty to consult withHMIC and take into account their assessmentbefore the intervention power is activated.

The Inspection of Policing5.35 The Government believes it vital to have

arrangements for the inspection of policingwhich are focused on providing rigorous andimpartial reports on key policing issues includingthe performance of police forces and BasicCommand Units. Impartial inspection is also vitalin terms of maintaining overall public trust andconfidence in policing. Her Majesty’sInspectorate of Constabulary has already takenup the challenge posed by the Government’sfirst phase of police reform. The introduction ofthe baseline assessments referred to in AppendixII has noticeably enhanced HMIC’s inspectionmethodology and professionalism.

5.36 Inspection of public services more generally hasa key role to play in improving public servicedelivery. The Government’s wider approach toinspection of public services was set out in the

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11 s.3 of the Police Reform Act 2002 refers.

Office of Public Service’s 2003 policy paper.12

This established the principles that public serviceinspection should

• be independent of the service providers;

• provide assurance, to Ministers and the public,about the safe and proper delivery of thoseservices;

• contribute to improvement of those services;

• report in public; and

• deliver value for money.

5.37 The Government is committed to the continuingimportance of these key inspection outcomes aspart of its overall strategy for public servicereform. At the same time the Governmentbelieves that inspection needs to be bothcoherent and cross-cutting, reflecting the wayservices are delivered. This holds true forpolicing, as it does for other parts of the criminaljustice system, and has particular resonance forhow the activities of the police service relateto the overall effectiveness of the criminaljustice system.

5.38 As part of a general review of theinspection arrangements for publicservices, the Government therefore intendsto consult early in the New Year ondifferent, more coherent arrangements forthe end-to-end inspection of the CriminalJustice System. This will, of course, involveexamining the role of the inspection of policingwithin any newly configured arrangements. Theconsultation will also need to consider the other,

important, non-inspection functions which residewith HMIC, including the Chief Inspector’s roleas the senior expert adviser on policing to theHome Secretary. The establishment of theNational Policing Improvement Agency will alsobe relevant to these issues.

5.39 Pending the outcome of the review, and theestablishment of any new arrangements, theGovernment wishes to see HMIC continuing todeliver highly professional and cost effectiveinspection arrangements to the police service.

5.40 With intelligence-led policing and a performancefocus as its foundations then, we turn next tohow policing should be structured andsupported to best meet the considerablechallenges of the 21st century.

Structures and Support5.41 Building the kind of responsive service which

is able, effectively, to meet the challenges ofcriminality today means looking at whether theright structure is in place for policing in thiscountry. And it means ensuring that policinghas the right support in terms of funding,modernised powers and science andtechnological advancements. This sectionof the paper discusses these issues. But theGovernment also believes that a new dynamic isneeded to support policing in meeting thechallenges and demands it faces – and to embeda culture of self-improvement within the policeservice. We explore this next.

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12 Inspecting for improvement – Developing a customer focused approach.


The National Policing Improvement Agency

5.42 Much is expected of police forces and policeauthorities both individually and collectively interms of improving performance. TheGovernment wants to ensure that appropriatearrangements are in place to support thisimprovement. That is why – based on proposalsput forward initially by the Association of ChiefPolice Officers (ACPO) – we propose to createa National Policing Improvement Agency.The intention to establish such a new body wasoutlined in the Home Office’s five year StrategicPlan published in July 2004.13

5.43 At present, the mechanisms for national policingimprovements are disparate and overlapping.The lines of accountability and responsibility areoften blurred. The Agency is intended to changethis by providing a radically different model ofpolice service participation in the process ofcontinuous improvement. We want to enable thepolice service and its leaders to have a muchmore systematic – and full time – role in theprocess of developing standards and operationalcapability. This will be combined – for the firsttime – with those functions of the Home Officeand other national bodies concerned with howthe Service discharges its operational activities. Itis essential that the culture of the Agency shouldbe professionally driven but outward looking –connected to the citizen and committed toworking in partnership with others.

5.44 The Agency will have clear authority to deliver inthe following three core areas:

• good practice development – refinement andcodification of core policing processes andcompetencies;

• an implementation support function –working with forces and others to providecapacity and assistance to implement swiftchange on key mission critical policingpriorities; and

• operational policing support.

5.45 In delivery of these outcomes, the Agency willpay particular attention to operational supportsystems – including the application of scienceand technology. Another key function will betaking forward the workforce modernisationagenda and other issues relating to thedevelopment of officers and staff within forces.

5.46 The Agency will have a particular focus ondriving the delivery of a small number of ‘missioncritical’ priorities which would be outlined inthe National Policing Plan. These missioncritical priorities would be set by Ministers,predominantly drawn from proposals in ACPO’sNational Strategic Assessment. It will be crucialthat ACPO have secured strong buy-in from chiefconstables into that Assessment so that there is aconsensus on the priority areas. Once themission critical priorities are agreed, the Agencywill be charged – with chief constables and forces– with achieving their implementation.

5.47 A key undertaking which must underscore howthe Agency will function will be establishing astrong, effective and mutual relationship with all43 forces.

5.48 It is hoped that the position of the Agency, aswell as the stakeholder sign up implied by theprocess for setting priorities, will secure rapidnationwide delivery. However, the Agency willhave the ability – where this does not transpire –to require forces to implement mission critical

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13 Confident Communities in a Secure Britain (July 2004, Cm 6287)

objectives at a rate (and in a manner) that itdeems appropriate. The Agency would makeactive use of existing powers and the Regulations/Codes of Practice regime to achieve this.

5.49 A strong pre-requisite for the establishment ofthe Agency is the rationalisation of the landscapeof national organisations. We propose to slim thislandscape down considerably, around a newinfrastructure of the Agency, the Police StandardsUnit and the irreducible core of policingresponsibilities which must rightly sit within theHome Office. The Agency’s introduction willclearly therefore mean significant change forCentrex, the Police Information TechnologyOrganisation, and the National Centre forPolicing Excellence, as well as the other parts ofthe Home Office concerned with policing. Wealso hope that many of ACPO’s policy makingfunctions will also become enshrined within thenew body, in line with the objectives which theyoutlined in their vision for the new Agency.

5.50 At the same time, the Government is clear thatthe inspection function and the monitoring andintensive support functions of the PoliceStandards Unit, will sit outside of the Agency.

5.51 This rationalisation will produce the greaterclarity of purpose and scope which the policeservice has argued for, as well as greaterefficiency. The funding for the Agency for 2005-06 and beyond will be found from within theexisting funding envelopes of the existingorganisations. It is hoped that the fullrationalisation of the landscape will have beenachieved by the end of 2006-07.

5.52 The rationalisation proposed above needs to takeaccount of the existing governance arrangementsof the constituent bodies and the fact that, insome cases, these are covered by specific

statutory requirements. This will mean that someof the underpinning legislative changes will haveto take place when parliamentary time allows.However, we propose before then to set up aninterim non-statutory governance arrangement.The Government believes that the Agency’sBoard should be a small body with a significanttripartite decision-making capacity invested in it.Its role will be to task and coordinate theactivities of the Agency and those upon whomit will rely for delivery.

5.53 The Agency’s Chief Executive will be clearlyresponsible to the Board for the organisation’sdelivery. At the same time, the Chief Executivewill need to have a close and active relationshipwith Ministers, to ensure that the Agency canreact to high profile national developments andthat necessary Ministerial intervention can bebrought to bear where blockages arise.

5.54 The Chief Executive will be appointed by theHome Secretary with the active involvement ofboth ACPO and the Association of PoliceAuthorities in the selection panel that will advisethe Home Secretary on the proposed appointee.We envisage that the first Chief Executive will beappointed early in the financial year 2005-06.

5.55 We are clear that the rationalisation associatedwith the establishment of the Agency will be amajor undertaking. We must ensure that thisdoes not dislocate the important programs ofdelivery already established for organisationssuch as Centrex and the Police InformationTechnology Organisation. To achieve this, we willbe putting in place effective programmemanagement arrangements and a dedicatedimplementation team on which we hope therewill be a strong tripartite representation.

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Cross-border (or ‘level two’) crime

5.56 As we indicated at the beginning of this Chapter,the overall effectiveness of the police service isdependent on its ability to tackle crime at alllevels. At the very local level, as we have alreadyexplored, this should be about providingresponsive neighbourhood policing involvingmuch closer engagement with the public. At thenational and, increasingly, international level ofpolicing, effectiveness is more about protectingthe public from the harm caused by seriousorganised crime and terrorism. As we discuss inChapter Three of this paper, however, the levelsare very much inter-linked. The Governmentsees a need to highlight a particular level ofcriminality that falls somewhere between the twoends of the local/national spectrum – crime thatcrosses police borders or ‘level two’ crime to usethe terminology of the National IntelligenceModel.

5.57 Today’s organised criminals, like the rest ofsociety, are highly mobile and rarely confine theiractivities within one Basic Command Unit orforce boundary. The recent baseline assessmentsof all forces conducted by Her Majesty’sInspectorate of Constabulary provided evidencein support of a widely held belief (including bythe police service itself) that more needs to bedone to improve its overall performance inrespect of level two criminality. Whilst a smallnumber of forces are committing commendableenergy to that end, HMIC did not feel confidentto grade any force as ‘excellent’ in dealing withlevel two crime.

5.58 The Home Office has provided funding for theNational Criminal Intelligence Service specificallyto gather intelligence and support forces intackling level two crime through Regional

Tasking and Co-ordination Groups. Funding hasalso been given to specific projects that aim totackle level two criminality in various areas –such as Operation Tarian in Wales to tackle drugscrime. The Government considers that moreneeds to be done, however, to build thecollective capability of the police service to tacklelevel two crime. We believe that a more coherentstrategy is required to improve performance inthis area. The establishment of the new SeriousOrganised Crime Agency in 2006 (see AppendixIII) will make it particularly important that forcesare clear about how they can contribute totackling crime at the force and regional level.

5.59 One option – which the Governmentwishes to explore further – would be toconsider the creation of dedicated teamsacross regions or groups of forces with thespecific task of co-ordinating the effortagainst level two criminality in that regionor area. Such teams would make the best use ofthe collective resources to combat level twocrime, which currently vary from force to force.A national network of such teams might also bein the best position to develop a comprehensiveoperational knowledge of level two activity andpatterns across England and Wales. This networkof teams would also be able to provide a moreconsistent and formal interface with otherpartner and law enforcement agencies, includingthe new Serious Organised Crime Agency.

5.60 The Government is also exploring how best toincentivise collaboration and co-operation intackling level two crime – including assessingforces on their performance in this area throughappropriate measures in the PolicingPerformance Assessment Framework. In theinterim, assessing performance in tackling leveltwo crime remains part of the HMIC baselineassessment process. The criteria for the level two

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assessment in 2005 are being refined. Theprocess itself involves self-assessment byindividual forces and additional professionalassessment by HMIC at regional and nationallevel prior to final grades being agreed on an‘excellent, good, fair, poor’ basis.

5.61 In the context of clarifying the roles andresponsibilities of police authorities that wediscuss later in this Chapter, the Governmentproposes placing a duty on policeauthorities to co-operate with neighbouringauthorities to help tackle cross bordercrime and to analyse the effectiveness oftheir forces in this area of activity.

Force structures

5.62 The Government acknowledges that inconsidering the future of policing in this country,a more fundamental question which needs to beaddressed is whether the current 43 forcestructure in England and Wales is the right oneto meet today’s and tomorrow’s policing needs.We raised this issue in the November 2003consultation paper Policing: Building SaferCommunities Together and indicated that wewere interested in exploring thinking around thedevelopment of ‘strategic forces’ with the abilityto tackle crime at all levels. The key messagefrom the responses to the consultation paperwas that ‘form should follow function’ and that,before considering changes to police force areas,an assessment needed to be made of whetherindividual forces have the capability and capacityto meet all the demands placed on them intoday’s policing environment.

5.63 As we state in paragraph 5.11 above, theGovernment is not persuaded that theestablishment of a national police force is theright direction for policing in this country. But

beyond this position, the Government believes itwould be premature to reach firm conclusionson the question of structures or possibleamalgamations of forces until a detailed studyhas been undertaken – looking at the issues ofcapability and capacity raised in the response toour consultation exercise. Accordingly, theHome Secretary has commissioned HerMajesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary toexamine the issue of force structures inEngland and Wales. The Home Secretary hasalso asked, specifically, that HMIC considers theextent to which policing can be made moreeffective through greater collaboration and co-operation between forces and to consider theimpact of any structural change on the importantwider criminal justice agencies. The focus of thiswork is around identifying what standards forcesneed to meet in respect of six strategic areas ofoperational policing, ranging from counter-terrorism to roads policing and including leveltwo crime.

5.64 HMIC have been asked to report their initialfindings to the Home Secretary by the end ofJanuary 2005 at which point the Government willengage stakeholders in discussing theimplications of the Report.

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Lead Forces

5.65 Alongside the issue of force structures, theGovernment also indicated in its November 2003consultation paper that it wished to examine therole which ‘lead forces’ with particularspecialisms could play in providing services toother forces. Lead forces already operate in anumber of areas across England and Wales atvarious different levels. For instance, theMetropolitan Police Service has the national leadon terrorism; the City of London Police leads oncomplex financial crime for the whole of theSouth East; and – on a different level – ThamesValley Police provides diving and mountedservices to neighbouring forces. There are alsoother examples of forces which have developedspecialisms in certain areas, either due to thegeography of the force or some other need, andwhich make those skills available to other forces.The lead force approach might also provide amodel for inter-force collaboration in theprovision of corporate services.

5.66 The Government will explore the furtherdevelopment of arrangements for leadforces or specialisms, in particular forthose crimes which, by their very nature,are not confined to geographical forceareas – such as hi-tech crime or onlinepaedophilia. To an extent, this issue is linkedwith the wider question of force structures inthat if it becomes apparent that a smaller numberof forces in England and Wales would providemore effective policing – this may call intoquestion the need to develop such lead forces.But even then, there may be a case for giving afunctional lead to certain forces to lead on thosecrimes and proactive investigations for whichthere is no obvious territorial lead. TheGovernment therefore intends to explore this

issue further with both the Association of ChiefPolice Officers and the Association of PoliceAuthorities.

Serious Organised Crime Agency

5.67 There is one area of policing in which theGovernment has already announced that therewill be structural change – organised crime.A successful approach to this type of crime isinseparable from our wider approach to improvethe overall effectiveness of policing and buildsafety and security in our communities. We makethe point in Chapter Three of this paper aboutthe effects of drugs smuggling for examplemanifesting themselves in local neighbourhoods.So it is vital that our drive on neighbourhoodpolicing is not, and is not seen to be, dislocatedfrom our approach to tackling, more effectively,serious and organised crime. The Governmenthas already announced its intention to create aSerious Organised Crime Agency to reduce theenormous harm caused by organised crime toindividuals, families, communities and thecountry as a whole. Further details on theestablishment of the new Serious OrganisedCrime Agency are set out in Appendix III to thispaper.

Police Funding

5.68 Ensuring that policing has appropriate funding tomeet the demands placed upon it is clearly ofcritical importance in ensuring its overalleffectiveness. Government investment in policinghas increased by 21% in real terms since March1997. The Spending Review 2004 will allow us tomaintain significant investment in the policeservice and future funding settlements willcontinue to support our programme for reformand modernisation.

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5.69 The net cost of policing in 2004/05 stands at£11.3 billion. Of that £9.6 billion is revenueexpenditure spent directly by police forces/authorities. The remaining £1.7 billion is madeup of central spend on the police, grants to thepolice for specific purposes and police capital.

The need for changes to police funding

5.70 At a very basic level, the Government wants toensure that transparent and effective fundingmechanisms are in place and that they delivervalue for money. Police resources are at recordlevels but they are finite. We must make the bestand most efficient use of those available.Following Sir Peter Gershon’s review of publicsector efficiency, the police service has been set atarget for value for money improvements of 3%per year over the three years starting in2005/2006.

5.71 An undoubted strength of the current system isthe way in which Government funding of policeauthorities is distributed according to relativeneed, calculated using an objective fundingformula which takes account of ability to raiseresources locally. We do not intend to changethis approach but we think that the existingsystem can be improved to address weaknesses.In particular, it:

• uses old data in the funding formula used todistribute Government money between policeauthorities. This needs updating;

• makes no link between performanceexpectations and resource allocation;

• distributes some police funding outside thepolice funding formula. There are severalgrants paid directly to police forces for specificpurposes, such as the payments to the mostrural police forces to meet the cost they faceand to the Metropolitan Police Authority andpolice authorities around the capital to coverthe cost of local allowances. The Home Officehas also used specific grants to drive changeand improve performance in policing, forexample increasing the number of policeofficers to record levels and stimulatingchanges in the police workforce, including theintroduction of CSOs. The growing use ofspecific grants has, however, increased thecomplexity of the police funding system andreduced police authorities’ flexibility whenmaking funding decisions. We need to exploreto what extent they can be incorporated intogeneral police grant in line with Governmentpolicy to reduce the proportion of localgovernment funding provided as specificgrants.

5.72 The existing police funding system works on anannual basis. The Government has decided tointroduce three-year settlements for localauthorities to improve resource planning,increase efficiency and support service deliveryfollowing a full consultation. The consultationwill seek views on how and to what extent threeyear settlements should apply to the full policesettlement.

5.73 The Government wants to see more effectiveand accountable local government and asustainable, flexible and efficient system of localgovernment funding is an essential part of that.Within this, the Government is committed tolooking at the balance of funding for localauthorities.

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5.74 In response to the Office of the Deputy PrimeMinister’s Balance of Funding Review,14 theGovernment has commissioned an independentinquiry into local government funding chaired bySir Michael Lyons. The Government will need toconsider fully the implications for police fundingof the Lyons’ Inquiry’s recommendationsincluding whether:

• local accountability for the police fundingraised from local sources via the policeprecept should be strengthened, to give localpeople greater influence over their localpolicing services;

• there are any lessons to be learned from theexisting police funding system that provideslimited ways for local organisations, businessesand people to fund additional policing if theywant it. In particular, the police can providespecial policing services at cost to thoserequesting them and they can receive limitedsponsorship.

Charging for policingThere has been a lack of clarity andconsistency in the use of Section 25 of thePolice Act 1996 which enables chief officersto provide, on request, special policeservices in return for payment at ratesdetermined by the police authority. Thepower enables organisers of sporting andsimilar events to draw, where necessary, onthe services and expertise of the police.

The Association of Chief Police Officers hasbeen developing a new costing modelintended to deliver consistency oncharging for such services. But the newmethodology will not be in general useuntil 2005-06. Until this guidance is inplace, we will not be able to considerproperly whether there are any groundsfor proposing to change the currentlegislative arrangements.

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14 The Balance of Funding Review, ODPM, July 2004. ISBN 1 85112 7216.

5.75 There are currently no funding incentives orflexibility for high performing forces. Highperforming forces that use police funding to

Charging for policing(continued)We will continue to work withstakeholders, including the police andevent organisers through, for example, thejoint Home Office and Department forCulture Media and Sport Football WorkingGroup, to explore these issues. Theyinclude the scope to further reduce theamount of police services required atevents, for example through effective useof stewarding and other measures by eventorganisers, and any wider contributionswhich the organisations involved make toimproving community safety.

We are also seeking a financial contributionfrom the drinks industry towards the harmcaused by excessive drinking as part of thesocial responsibility schemes that we areworking to develop with the industry.These schemes will be voluntary and thesuccess of this approach will be reviewedearly in the next Parliament. If the actionsof the alcohol industry are not beginningto make an impact in reducing harm, theGovernment will assess the case foradditional steps, including possiblylegislation. We will also encourage thealcohol industry to participate fully inBusiness Improvement Districts at a locallevel, which are an important way togenerate extra money to tackle particularlocal problems around alcohol-related crime.

greater effect might merit greater investment andmore freedom in the way they use their funds –which we want to explore further, as we proposein paragraph 5.28 and 5.29 above.

Modernising police powers and scientificsupport

5.76 The police service having the right powers to doits job and being supported by the latest inscientific and technological advancements areother important elements of the Government’sapproach to building a better service for thepublic. They are vital in terms of making surepolicing is effective in today’s world – but alsoefficient. Having powers which are fit for purposeand exploiting new technology helps reducebureaucratic burdens and puts more officers outin communities – thus supporting our drive onneighbourhood policing – and helps in terms ofensuring national coherence in policing practices.

Police powers

5.77 The Government recognises that ensuring thatthe police have effective powers that are alignedto the changing environment of crime andcriminality is vital to the overall effectiveness ofpolicing. Building on work we have already doneto modernise powers and procedures (includinga review of the important Police and CriminalEvidence Act 1984 procedures) we recently setout proposals for change in a consultationdocument, Tackling crime and reassuring thepublic – a Consultation on Police Powers15

published in August 2004. It outlined theGovernment’s intention to modernise a numberof aspects of police powers – including thepower of arrest – in ways which will help totackle crime and disorder and reduce thechances of criminals avoiding detection and

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15 Taken from Policing: Building Safer Communities Together (Summary of Consultation Responses) pages 26-27.


conviction. The proposals are also designed tomake the best use of police officers’ time andreduce bureaucratic burdens, whilst maintainingprotection for the individual.

5.78 Initial examination of the responses received todate has shown significant support for both theoverall approach and the detailed content of theconsultation paper. The Government isconsidering the responses in detail with a viewto announcing its conclusions later in 2004.

Science and technology

5.79 In May 2004, the Government published its fiveyear Police Science and Technology Strategy16

to support both long term sustainableimprovements in policing and deliver shortterm benefits for the citizen. A number ofimprovements are already delivering real results– most significantly perhaps the National DNAdatabase which is revolutionising crimedetection.

5.80 The Government will continue to invest in keynational IT systems like the Police NationalComputer and also ensure that local systemsare linked and not developed in silos. Theintroduction of the first National PoliceIntelligence Computer system – ‘IMPACT’ – willensure that all forces use the same system tomanage and share intelligence information.

• The National DNA Database –currently the world’s largest and leadingforensic science database. Each week, theDNA Database identifies on average sixmurder suspects and matches over 700profiles from crime scenes to namedindividuals.

• Automatic Number Plate Recognition– in its first year of use nationally it led toover 13,000 arrests and some 54,000 FixedPenalty Notices.

• The National Automated FingerprintIdentification System (NAFIS) – thisstate of the art system contains 5.7 millionsets of individual fingerprints andapproximately 930,000 crime scenemarks. It has revolutionised and mademuch quicker the use of fingerprints incrime investigation.

• Livescan – a system used in custodysuites to enable fingerprints to be takenand submitted electronically fromsuspects on arrest and searched againstthe NAFIS database.

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16 Police Science and Technology Strategy 2004 – 2009, available at: www.policereform.gov.uk

5.81 Looking forward, the Forensic IntegrationStrategy will drive and co-ordinate work toensure that the police optimise their use offorensic science, extending our global lead onthe use of DNA to all forms of forensicintelligence. The aim of the strategy is to fullyintegrate – by March 2008 – all forensicintelligence to provide maximum value, qualityand impact in the investigative process; toenhance its value to investigators and to presentmore focused evidence to the Criminal JusticeSystem. The Strategy will also support SirMichael Bichard’s recommendation for thedelivery of a National Intelligence Framework.

5.82 A further key development in improving theefficiency and effectiveness of forensic science isthe plan to transform the Forensic ScienceService into a Public Private Partnership, via aGovernment owned company. This will ensurethat potential for exploiting forensic science ismaximised and that the police have access to themost efficient and cost-effective forensic science.

5.83 The Government is also pursuing the nationalroll-out to forces of a number of information andcommunications technologies which will ensurecoherence across all forces, reduce bureaucracyand improve efficiency and effectiveness. Ensuring the effectiveness

of policing5.84 Finally in this Chapter, and importantly, we

consider the arrangements by which those whoare responsible, at whatever level, for deliveringgood policing, reducing crime and anti-socialbehaviour within communities, and respondingto the needs and priorities of the public whomthey serve, are held effectively to account fortheir performance in doing so.

• Airwave – the new radio communicationservice for police forces in England, Walesand Scotland. It will be fully deployed byMay 2005 and we expect all forces to befully operational on Airwave by mid-2006.

• Custody and Case Preparation –provides software to give on-line guidanceto police custody officers on all theprocedures to be followed in the bookingin of a suspect and to process cases frominitiation to disposal.

• ViSOR (Violent and Sex OffenderRegister) – fulfills the joint responsibilityunder the Criminal Justice and CourtServices Act 2001 placed on the policeand probation service to register, riskassess and manage sex offenders andviolent and dangerous offenders.

• NMIS (National ManagementInformation System) – will provideforces with a performance managementtool across all core aspects of policing andto a common data model.

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5.85 The Government explored these issues in its2003 consultation paper on police reform.17 Theapproach set out in this paper to building a moreresponsive, citizen-focused police service –which has a deeper, stronger connection withthe public – needs to be underpinned, webelieve, by people having the opportunity tohave a real say in how their local areas arepoliced. And we need to put in place stronger,clearer, more transparent ways of ensuring thatthose with a responsibility for ensuring thatindividuals and families live in safe communitiesare held effectively to account for theirperformance in carrying out thoseresponsibilities. The Government believes this isvital for building public trust and confidence inpolicing. As we indicate in Chapter Two of thispaper, the public is presently unclear about howthings work.

5.86 The Government recognises, though, that this isa complex area. There are inextricable links, forexample, to local government arrangements inEngland and Wales. Our 2003 consultation paperproposed looking at making improvements atthree levels – neighbourhoood; district (typicallycovered by a Basic Command Unit/Crime andDisorder Reduction Partnership) and police forcelevel. This approach received a general welcome.Above this level, there is also the important rolewhich Government itself plays. It is vitallyimportant that there are strong, transparent linksbetween the mechanisms at all these levels.

5.87 We set out below our proposals to ensure that allcommunities enjoy the responsive policing theydeserve. Given the complexity of some of theissues, and our desire to ensure we arrive at anarrangement which works in practice, andaccommodates the different complexion ofcommunities in different parts of the country,there are some elements of our approach whichwe propose to develop further. But our startingpoint – as set out in paragraph 5.85 above – isclear.

5.88 Proposals for arrangements at theneighbourhood level were discussed in ChapterThree (see paragraphs 3.57–3.64). Building onthese proposals, the remainder of this Chapterconcentrates on the district and police force level.

District level

5.89 Effective policing at the level typically covered bydistrict or unitary councils – what are known asBasic Command Units18 within police force areasand which often, but not always, correspond toCrime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships(CDRPs) – is crucial to ensuring communitysafety. This level is important not only in its ownright, but because it forms a bridge between andsupports activity at the very local neighbourhoodlevel that we explored in Chapter Three and thatat the police force level.

5.90 As we have made clear earlier in this paper, theGovernment regards effective partnershipworking as being vital to ensuring communitysafety. The creation of partnerships to tacklecrime and disorder at a local level was a

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17 Policing: Building safer Communities Together – available at www.policereform.gov.uk

18 BCUs are the main operating unit of police forces. Typically, a force will divide its territorial area into a number of BCUs, each havingits own complement of officers and staff. The officer in charge of a BCU will be tasked by his or her chief constable with policingthat locality and day to day decisions will be made as close to communities as possible.

fundamental feature of the Crime and DisorderAct 1998. There are now 354 Crime and DisorderReduction Partnerships in England and 22Community Safety Partnerships in Wales. Furtherdetails about CDRPs are contained in Appendix IV.

5.91 Many CDRPs are working well – implementingrobust community safety strategies, shaped bythe needs of local people and leading to tangiblebenefits for local communities. But a significantnumber of partnerships struggle to maintain afull contribution from key agencies and evensuccessful ones are not sufficiently visible, norwe think accountable, to the public as theyshould be. Responses to the consultation paper,Policing: Building Safer Communities Together19

indicated a broad support for CDRPs and thework of Local Strategic Partnerships.20 But therewas a general acknowledgement that furtherimprovements were needed.

Proposals for change5.92 Work is already underway to strengthen

partnership performance. In line with our focuson the performance of police forces and BasicCommand Units, the Government is currentlyputting in place a new performance managementframework for CDRPs. This will strengthen theability of the Home Office (working through theGovernment Offices for the Regions and theWelsh Assembly Government) to actively monitorpartnership progress, taking action to addresspoor performance.

5.93 But the Government is clear that this sort ofaccountability must also be embedded into localcommunities. This means ensuring that localpeople know how to engage with CDRPs andunderstand what they can expect from theagencies working on community safety issues. Tofacilitate this, the Government will formallyreview the partnership provisions of theCrime and Disorder Act 1998. The Reviewwill be conducted by the Home Office, the LocalGovernment Association, the Association of ChiefPolice Officers and the Association of PoliceAuthorities and will involve all key stakeholdersand practitioners. The Review will report itsconclusions by January 2005. Building on thisReview the Government proposes to publisha wider Community Safety Strategy in 2005.

5.94 The full scope of the Crime and Disorder ActReview is set out in Appendix IV. TheGovernment’s overall objective – against which itwill judge what needs to be changed in the lightof the Review – is to strengthen the visibility,responsiveness to local needs and priorities, androle of local partnerships – to enable them toachieve sustained reductions in crime, disorderand substance abuse.

5.95 In meeting this objective, there are someparticular areas that we want to explore further –how, for example, to embed a commitment tocommunity safety firmly within mainstreamcouncil activity – including through the AuditCommission’s Comprehensive PerformanceAssessment process;21 how best to reinforce local

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19 Taken from Policing: Building safer Communities Together (Summary of Consultation Responses) pages 26-27.

20 An LSP is a grouping of organisations and representatives of public, private, business, voluntary and community sectors, who cometogether to identify common objectives for their local community. A local strategic partnership normally covers a local authority area –this can be either a borough or a district, or a whole county.

21 The Audit Commission’s 2005 Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) of upper tier local authorities will include communitysafety and engagement as elements of the overall corporate assessment.


democratic accountability for community safetythrough, for example, the involvement inpartnerships of the district/unitary councilmember with an identified portfolio forcommunity safety; and what the role ofbackbench council scrutiny committees might bein scrutinising the delivery of key partnershippriorities. We want to look at how best to ensurethe full involvement of all of the key localpartners in committing energy and resources tojoint solutions to help build safe communities.So the Review will look, specifically, at theeffectiveness of the existing statutory duty onpartners contained in section 17 of the Crimeand Disorder Act 1998 to prevent crime anddisorder – including the consequences of non-compliance with this duty.

5.96 The Government is not seeking a uniform or‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for new arrangementsat this ‘intermediate’ district level. Rather, inkeeping with our overall approach to policing,we want to construct an enabling framework thatworks for communities across the country andfacilitates local solutions to local problems.

Police Force level5.97 At the police force level, police authorities have a

statutory responsibility for ensuring that all areashave an efficient and effective police force.22

A crucial part of this role is holding chief officersof police to account for their performance. TheGovernment’s November 2003 consultationpaper on police reform explored a number ofoptions for strengthening the currentarrangements at police authority level – and thereasons why these are considered necessary. TheGovernment was encouraged by the constructive

response to its consultation exercise, particularlyfrom the Association of Police Authorities. Weremain of the view that changes need to be madeto the current arrangements – we think this isvital in terms of public trust and confidence andincreasing community engagement in policing.

5.98 The Government’s approach is to strengthen therole of the police authority at this strategic levelto ensure that communities are policedeffectively, and that forces are responsive to theneeds and priorities of the local public whomthey serve. We also want to increase the publicvisibility of police authorities – which we think isbest done by strengthening their ties with localgovernment, the community itself and throughthe proposals in Chapter Three to require theprovision of information about policing mattersto be sent to all householders. To help build thecloser ties and involvement in policing mattersthat the public wants to see, we believe that itshould be the responsibility of police authoritiesto ensure that effective arrangements to securepublic engagement are in place at theneighbourhood and district level. We explorethese issues below.

Police authority membership5.99 The Government proposes to make changes,

as set out below, to strengthen the calibre,representative nature and democratic legitimacyof police authority membership.

Councillors

5.100 Strong local government input to policeauthority business is vital – both in terms ofenabling authorities to fulfil their role and their

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22 Police Act 1996 – section 6(1) refers.

democratic legitimacy with their communities.Councillor members of police authorities need tobe closely connected to decisions about tacklingcrime and community safety on their councils.

5.101 For police force areas which includeunitary council areas only, the Governmentproposes that each council should appointits cabinet member with responsibility forcommunity safety to the police authoritythus ensuring stronger and more direct ties tolocal people and local authority services. In thosepolice force areas which include a combinationof unitary and two-tier council areas, the positionis less straightforward. We will therefore discusswith our stakeholders in the police service andlocal government options for workable change inthese areas. But we set out, in Appendix V, anillustrative example of one possible approach totwo-tier areas, together with a description ofwhat our proposed approach to unitary areasmeans in practice.

5.102 The governance arrangements for London’s twopolice forces are different. The role of theCorporation of London in relation to the City ofLondon Police is part of the unique governancearrangements for the City. We do not propose toalter them as part of these reforms. The GreaterLondon Authority and the Metropolitan PoliceAuthority have only been in existence since 2000.The respective roles and relationship with eachother are still developing and we believe that itwould be premature to change them now.

5.103 In terms of police authority size, most policeauthorities will retain a membership of 17. Therewill be no reduction in membership below thisnumber but the maximum will not be above 21.Councillor members should still have a majority

of one. So on an authority with 17 members, 9will be councillors; on an authority with 21members,11 will be councillors.

5.104 The Government recognises that theseproposals, by themselves, will not necessarilyraise, across the board, the calibre of councillormember on police authorities or, indeed, resultin authorities which are more representative oftheir communities than now. The success of ourapproach depends, in part, on the wider workwhich the Government is pursuing to developstrong and vibrant community leadership by localcouncils and councillors.

Magistrates

5.105 Magistrate members have traditionally providedan important link between the police and otherparts of the criminal justice system. To ensurethat this link continues but that there can also bean increase in local governance membership, theGovernment proposes that there should nolonger be a separate category of magistratemember on police authorities. Instead,given their experience and knowledge ofthe local area, where magistrate candidatesapply to be independent members, therewill be a presumption that at least onesuch magistrate will be appointed as anindependent member on the authority.

Independent members

5.106 The Government proposes to maintain the roleof independent members on police authorities.But in the light of the findings of a recent HomeOffice review of the existing arrangements,23

we propose that the appointment ofindependent members to police authoritiesshould be judged against a competency-

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23 Review of the Selection and Appointments Process of Independent Members of Police Authorities, Home Office, May 2004.


based framework of criteria, to complementthe existing range of skills, knowledge andexperience of other authority members. Webelieve that there should also be set criteriaabout diversity for example race, gender, age,and skills. Further detail on how we see thisprocess working is contained in Appendix V.

Police authority chairs

5.107 The Government proposes that policeauthorities should continue to select their ownchair by a vote of the whole authority. But wepropose that candidates for policeauthority chair should be subject to acompetency-based selection processoverseen by an accredited assessor from theOffice of the Commissioner for PublicAppointments.

Police authority powers5.108 Alongside the proposals we set out above to

strengthen the membership of police authorities,the Government proposes to clarify the rolewhich authorities play in ensuring that allcommunities are policed effectively. This isimportant for police forces and other partnerswith a responsibility for keeping communitiessafe but also, crucially, the public. Being clearabout who is responsible for what in terms ofpolicing is vital for public trust and confidence.At present, many people are very unclear aboutthe position.

5.109 Some of this is about re-stating the role of policeauthorities. For example, police authorities havenow – and will continue to have – theresponsibility for setting force policing priorities.And in particular, as we have already said,holding chief officers of police to account fortheir performance is a crucial part of policeauthority business. We expect authorities tohave full access and to use data and information

which will enable them to carry out this scrutinyrole effectively. This includes the performancedata that we have made available throughiQuanta (see Appendix II) – which we expect allpolice authorities to use effectively – but alsohaving full access to other information and dataheld by forces. But the Government believes thatthere are grounds for making changes tostrengthen the role of police authorities in orderboth to underpin the approach to increasing theengagement of communities in policing and toincrease the responsiveness and customerservice culture of police forces across Englandand Wales.

5.110 The Government therefore proposes placing aduty on police authorities to:

• take into account local policing prioritiesidentified at Crime and DisorderReduction Partnership (CDRP) levelwhen developing force policing plansand strategies;

• oversee the relationship between CDRPand neighbourhood bodies, and ensurethe implementation of citizeninvolvement – making sure that thesearrangements are not overly bureaucratic;

• co-operate with neighbouring authoritiesto help tackle cross border crime –known as ‘level two’ crime – and analysethe effectiveness of their own forces’performance in doing so – theimportance of which we explore inparagraphs 5.56–5.61 above;

• promote diversity within the police forceand authority;

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• conduct the chief constable’sperformance appraisal and to decide payand bonuses – with a formal requirementto consult Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofConstabulary in doing so; and

• request inspection by HMIC orintervention by the Police Standards Unitin respect of their force or particularparts of it where they consider this to benecessary.

5.111 The Government will discuss, formally, thepracticalities of the proposed change to thearrangements for the performance appraisal andpay of chief officers further with the Associationof Chief Police Officers and the Association ofPolice Authorities, including what this means fortraining of police authority members.

5.112 The Government believes that, as now, the policeauthority should appoint and have the powerto dismiss chief officers. But, unlike now, wepropose that it should be the chief officerof a force who should select his or herown senior management team – havingconsulted the police authority in drawingup a shortlist of candidates. Under presentarrangements – where appointments are madeby the police authority, chief officers can be heldto account for the performance of colleaguesthat they have had minimal influence inappointing.

5.113 In terms of the strengthened accountability roleproposed for police authorities – including theresponsibility for overseeing engagement at theneighbourhood and district level – theGovernment recognises that it is not the job ofthe police service to be perpetually attendingmeetings. The Government’s expectation is,therefore, that at the neighbourhood,Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership

and police force levels, accountabilityand scrutiny arrangements should beundertaken collaboratively to minimise offstreet activity by the police. Police authoritiesare required to include efficiency gains in theirannual policing plans. As we indicate in ChapterThree, the Government expects all authorities, tominimise bureaucracy. This is particularlyimportant in ensuring that robust accountabilitymechanisms are in place.

Efficiency

5.114 Police authorities are under a statutory duty tomaintain an effective police force for their area –but also an efficient one. An important part ofthe Government’s approach to makingimprovements in policing is the need to increasethe value for money obtained from thesubstantially increased resources that have beenprovided for policing. Central to the delivery ofbetter value for money are:

• increasing the time officers and staff spend onfront line policing;

• continuing the drive to reduce bureaucracy;

• modernising the police workforce;

• increasing collaboration, or amalgamation, todeliver such corporate services as financial orhuman resource management; and

• buying goods and services more efficiently andeffectively.

5.115 Helping the police service to achieve more forevery pound spent will ensure it better meetstoday’s policing challenges. The Governmentexpects this robust and positive approachto efficiency to be at the core of policeauthority performance, working inpartnership with chief officers.

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Inspection and intervention5.116 In terms of both inspection and intervention,

police authorities are the focus of some limitedaspects of provisions in the Local GovernmentAct 1999. Police authorities are not, however,currently inspected on how they discharge theirfull responsibilities. With the clearer,strengthened role that we propose above, theGovernment proposes that policeauthorities, like police forces, should besubject to independent inspection in orderto ensure public confidence. The Associationof Police Authorities’ own assessment frameworkcould provide the components against whichindividual authorities might be assessed(covering, for example, community engagement;planning and performance management;resource management and corporategovernance). We will explore this further as partof the Government’s wider review of inspectionarrangements for the criminal justice system (seeparagraph 5.36) to ensure that this is activity isco-ordinated with other existing monitoringarrangements.

5.117 We think there should be some redress wherethis inspection or appraisal process determinesthat there is a serious problem with an authority.This means, we believe, broadening the type ofsupport offered to the authority in question tomatch the sort of engagement available to theforce. In terms of intervention powers, theGovernment proposes to broaden theprovisions of the Local Government Act1999 – which already provides for somelimited circumstances for interventionwhen authorities do not discharge,effectively, their Best Value obligations – tocover the whole range of the policeauthority’s obligations.

Chief officers and Government5.118 The Government remains clear that to ensure

public confidence, chief officers of police musthave the freedom to exercise their properoperational responsibility for taking policingdecisions. As we have already made clear inChapter Four of this paper, the strategic visionand leadership of chief officers is vital to thesuccess of delivering effective, more responsivepolicing to their communities. TheGovernment’s overall approach to, andframework for, policing is designed to ensurethis is the case.

5.119 Policing must remain independent of politicalcontrol and direction to retain public trust.Neither Government nor police authoritiesshould have the right to direct a chief officer asto how they should run or conduct particularoperations. But that does not mean that, asleaders of a vitally important public service in ademocratic society, chief officers should not beopen to proper scrutiny about those decisionsand how well their force is doing in terms ofreducing crime and anti-social behaviour andbuilding safer communities. This approach hasinformed the proposals in this paper forstrengthening the role of police authorities andcommunity engagement in policing.

5.120 This Chapter has already explored the importantrole Government plays – in setting, for example,the national direction and strategic frameworkfor policing; providing funding and powers andestablishing priorities. We believe there is also arole for Government in offering support wherepolice performance concerns require it but also –in the final reckoning – protecting the public byintervening in cases of demonstrable failure orbringing national consistency and coherence tocertain policing practices where this is necessaryin the public interest.

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5.121 Notwithstanding the proposals in this paper tostrengthen the role of police authorities, theGovernment believes that exceptionalcircumstances may still arise in which the HomeSecretary may need to consider whether actionshould be taken in relation to the chief constableof a force in the interests of efficiency andeffectiveness or for maintaining publicconfidence. Recent events involving the existinglaw (and accompanying protocol) havedemonstrated the need for this process to be assimple and straightforward as possible. Weintend to retain the Home Secretary’s currentpowers, to be used in extremis, to suspend andremove chief officers. But the Governmentwill review the suspension process toensure that it is as fair and straightforwardas possible and discuss with theAssociation of Chief Police Officers, theAssociation of Police Authorities and theChief Police Officers Staff Association howbest to ensure there are informal as well asformal mechanisms for addressing chiefofficer performance issues.

5.122 A summary of the main duties of the so-called‘tripartite’ partners in policing in this country –the Home Secretary, chief officers and policeauthorities – is contained in Appendix VI.

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Chapter Six: Summary ofproposals


Proposal Paragraph Reference

Chapter 3 – A New Relationship between the Police and the Public – Building trust and Confidence

In supporting neighbourhood policing: 3.16

• joint guidance will be set out on neighbourhood policing for forces withthe Association of Chief Police Officers and the National Centre forPolicing Excellence early in 2005.

• a programme will be put in place to help forces implementneighbourhood policing and make sure that the highly skilled role ofneighbourhood officer is recognised, valued and trained in the same wayas other specialists within the police service.

• the roll-out of neighbourhood policing will be supported with substantialinvestment through the new Neighbourhood Policing Fund. We willdeliver 25,000 community support officers and wardens by 2008.

• a national community policing TOGETHER Academy programme will berun in March 2005 to ensure police officers and their CSO colleagues havethe tools, the know-how and the backing to tackle anti-social behaviour inthe communities they serve.

We are setting up an actionline for officers to raise any questions they have 3.20relating to bureaucracy

We expect police authorities and forces, as part of their planning process to 3.22consider what action they can take to minimise bureaucratic burdens.

Every force will have national standards of service in place by the end of 3.292006 and will agree in a ‘Contract’ with their communities how these can bebuilt on locally, to reflect the particular needs of the communities they serve.

The success of the Together Action Line will be built on to provide a direct 3.36single non-emergency number for the public which will deal withnon-emergency issues of policing, crime and anti-social behaviour.

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Chapter Six – Summary of proposals

Building Communities, Beating Crime |


To improve the responsiveness and customer service culture across all police 3.41forces, a number of projects will be brought together in 2005 as part of anational strategy to improve call handling:

• the Association of Chief Police Officers’ programme of work to bring allforces up to the same high standard of call handling, which is due tocomplete in April 2005;

• a thematic inspection on contact management to be carried out during2005 by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC); and

• a manual of best practice on the most effective ways to manage calls fromthe public which will be published following HMICs inspection.

From April 2005, the comparative assessment of overall force performance 3.43will include the satisfaction of victims of crime about how easy it was tomake contact with the police, how they were treated by staff, the actions police officers took and how they were kept informed of progress.

Greater emphasis will be given to assessing customer service and 3.44responsiveness as part of the changes to overall arrangements for inspectionand accountability.

A statutory minimum requirement will be introduced in terms of what each 3.51household can expect to receive in terms of local policing information.

New forms of support and advice will be made available on how frontline 3.54staff can engage more effectively with local communities.

Changes will be made to the way police performance is measured and 3.56inspected so that it reflects the priorities of the public and their views about the policing they have received.

A joint duty will be placed on the police and local authorities in each CDRP 3.59area to ensure they have sufficient arrangements in place to deliver a rangeof engagement opportunities for local neighbourhoods and to respond toconcerns that are raised as a result.

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133


The following changes will be made to existing statutory arrangements: 3.59

• extension of the responsibility on police authorities to secure theimplementation of a strategy to engage the community at all levels –including neighbourhoods – within the police area;

• a direct responsibility on the police in partnership with other bodies toput the strategy into place and to have arrangements to respond toneighbourhood level concerns; and

• a requirement for CDRPs to oversee the delivery of neighbourhood levelpriorities agreed with local communities. This may involve the routineestablishment of joint tasking and co-ordination groups that are already inplace in some areas.

The Home Office will work with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as 3.66part of the governments’ local government strategy, to develop a range ofways in which ward councillors can be assisted to act as advocates.

We will introduce a specific mechanism for triggering action. 3.69

The challenge remains how to effectively “empower” BCU commanders while 3.85maintaining the coherence of the force and avoiding the creation ofuneconomical units. The Government proposes to:

• carefully examine the precise role of BCU commanders and theircontribution to partnership working. This will take into account thedifferent contexts of policing across the country and address the balanceof activities between those that are delegated and those that are bettermanaged centrally; and

• develop further the key enablers of delegation to BCU Commanders. Wewill examine the importance of leadership, looking particularly at how farthe direction and corporate vision which chief constables provide and thetrust they exhibit in their commanders are essential for successfuldelegation to occur, and how this needs to be supported by appropriatetraining for all senior ranks. We will examine the use of strongermechanisms for BCU commanders to be held accountable for theirperformance, and investigate the relationships between force HQs andBCUs, including how resources are to be balanced and negotiatedbetween them to provide a clear operating framework.

Clear guidance on a BCU delegation and empowerment will be produced: 3.86


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Chapter 4 – Building a New Workforce

The Core Leadership Development Programme will ensure that officers of all 4.12levels, including post probationary constables, can develop the important leadership skills that will benefit and inform the way police constables andcommunity support officers work together in serving the community.

Mechanisms will be put in place for continuously developing constables’ 4.14operational skills.

Officers will no longer be required to have spent a specific number of years 4.15in a particular rank before being eligible for promotion.

Sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors – and police staff at equivalent 4.18levels – will all have access to the Core Leadership Development Programme, which will aim to develop their managerial, leadership andsome operational skills.

The national performance and development scheme will be revised to give 4.22police authorities a leading role in operating it.

In preparation for the growth in CSO numbers: 4.29

• a minimum set of powers will be developed, on the basis of experience sofar, which all CSOs need to possess to play a full part in neighbourhoodpolicing. This will include enforcement powers such as the power torequire a name and address, the power to confiscate alcohol and powersto issue fixed penalty notices;

• forces will be empowered to be able to grant the power of detention toCSOs;

• the Government will work with forces and Skills for Justice to developrole profiles linked to the national occupational standards. This willenable forces to match recruitment, training and developmentprogrammes to the work that CSOs perform;

• national recruitment of CSOs will be developed. This will take intoaccount pilots developed by the Metropolitan Police and others;


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Neighbourhood policing


• training packages for higher education colleges will be created for thosewho have yet to join the service, and national induction and trainingpackages for local delivery by forces. We will also ensure we reach allCSOs and their key police colleagues through a national TOGETHERAcademy Programme – to ensure they have the tools, know how andbacking to tackle anti social behaviour in the communities they serve.

• support training will be provided for supervisors of CSOs, who may bemembers of police staff or constables as well as sergeants;

• the terms and conditions negotiated in the Police Staff Council willprovide the right rewards to recruit, retain and motivate CSOs and giveforces the flexibilities they need to maximise the benefits from deployingthem;

• consideration will be given to how best to enhance the career structurefor CSOs so the best can advance without necessarily becominguniformed officers;

• commitment to national and local evaluation and encouragement of thesharing of expertise and good practice across the police service will bemaintained.

Consideration will be given to how to develop similar arrangements for 4.32police staff to those already available to police officers under the HighPotential Development Scheme which was introduced in 2002 to supportand develop future senior police leaders.

The roles of police authorities and chief officers in the appointment of 4.33members of police staff of ACPO equivalent rank should be the same as those for senior officer appointments.

Any regulatory bar which prevents members of police staff from carrying 4.34out functions appropriate to their role as senior managers will be removed.

The necessary regulatory changes will be proposed in the Police Negotiating 4.36Board to enable forces to run separate exercises for police staff to becomeofficers, in accordance with the National Recruitment Standard, and toappoint successful candidates as soon as there are vacancies.

It will be proposed in the Police Staff Council to review how more effective 4.37career structures for police staff might be put in place.

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We will work with stakeholders to increase the number of and effectiveness 4.40of police service volunteers:

• identify and share good practice in the recruitment, management,training and deployment of volunteers;

• encourage the use of dedicated staff to support the implementation ofgood practice. We have already awarded funding of up to £70,000 perforce in England and Wales for initiatives to help increase numbers andensure special constables are well managed and purposefully deployed;

• develop role profiles and a training programme based on nationaloccupational standards for members of the wider policing family,including special constables and police support volunteers;

• support recruitment and marketing efforts to better publicise policeservice volunteering roles and the personal development opportunitiesthey give to local people and community groups;

• investigate wider roles and specialist uses of volunteers; and

• help forces to establish partnerships with businesses, encouragingbusinesses to support staff who volunteer with forces, in recognition oftheir added training and skills.

Career pathways will defined and the take-up promoted. 4.45

Consideration will be given to developing professional registers for the 4.45police service, in line with practice in other professions.

A formal qualifications framework for the service will be developed – built 4.45on work-based assessment against national occupational standards. Therewill be qualifications for all areas of policing, including operational activitiessuch as investigations and other activities such as management.

Aspects of the current High Potential Development scheme will be reviewed 4.47to see if there are changes which should be made.

Proposals will be introduced in the Police Advisory Board to make 4.48recruitment as a police officer dependent on completion of the procedures set out in the NRS.


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Multiple points of entry to the police service will be introduced, removing 4.49the requirement that all police officers serve specific amounts of time at junior ranks before being promoted to more senior ranks.

There will be a review of whether the offer which the police service is able 4.51to make currently to graduates is sufficiently attractive. This will be lookedat particularly in relation to opportunities for accelerated career development and whether more can be done to market police careers more effectively,and on a national basis, to the graduate recruitment market.

A single national qualification for officers who successfully complete their 4.54probation will be introduced.

Work will be taken forward with further and higher education establishments 4.54to enable people with an interest in policing to undergo relevant trainingbefore actually joining a particular force and beginning their careers.

The PDR scheme will be overhauled with the aim of making it clearer, more 4.57robust and easier to use. The Police Performance Assessment Framework(PPAF) will be used to monitor the use of PDRs by forces.

Work-based assessment will be extended throughout the service as an 4.58alternative to the existing examinations.

Enhanced training will be developed leading to a specialist qualification for 4.60people wishing to take on BCU commander roles.

A mandatory qualification for superintendents seeking to become BCU 4.60commanders should be developed over time.

The way in which the service identifies senior talent will be strengthened. 4.61The Senior Careers Advisory Service (SCAS) will be aimed at chief officers and superintendents with the potential to become chief officers, and their equivalents among senior police staff.

Proposals have been made to the Police Advisory Board to make changes in 4.75regulations and determinations so that a member of a police force shall not belong to the BNP, Combat 18 or the National Front or any other organisationwhose constitution, aims, objectives or pronouncements are incompatiblewith the duty imposed by section 71 of the Race Relations Act 1976.


Standards for language skills other than in English will be developed so that 4.78forces may take the obvious advantage of taking those skills into account inrecruiting where this is operationally justified. Such candidates will of courseneed to meet the other elements of the national recruitment standard.

A national panel of assessors will be established from ethnic minority 4.78communities and include a regulatory requirement in National Recruitment Standards that all assessment and selection panels include representatives from ethnic minority communities and that where insufficient local assessors are available, members of the national panel take part in the assessment centres.

A standard exit interview procedure will be introduced to help us understand 4.78why people are leaving the service, particularly in the first six months (where ethnic minority recruits are disproportionately represented).

The Government will work with the National Black Police Association (NBPA) 4.78in support of its development plan and strengthen the support network for ethnic minority officers.

Specific exercises will be run to encourage members of ethnic minorities 4.78with successful careers in other professions to apply for lateral entry tosenior ranks in the service. They will of course be required to meet the samestandards for entry as majority community candidates.

Promotion and progression procedures will be reviewed to ensure they are 4.78fair, transparent and have no adverse impact on any group.

Barriers to the recruitment of women will be reviewed. Wherever possible, 4.81police training, including foundation and probationer training, will be madenon-residential and available on a part-time basis. Family-friendly, flexibleworking patterns should be available as a matter of course.

The stages of the promotion process will be examined to identify barriers to 4.81progression of women and take steps to remove them. In particular,examination will be given to what is needed to improve support andprogression for ethnic minority women officers.

The service will be consulted on the introduction of challenging progression 4.81targets to ensure greater representation of women at higher levels of theservice and on the High Potential Development scheme.

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A strategy will be published for using learning and development to improve 4.82police performance in race and diversity over the next five years.

A new duty will be placed on police authorities to promote diversity within 4.84the police force and authority.

The Government will explore with the staff associations and unions, and with 4.86the Independent chair of the PAB and PNB how to formalise the relationshipbetween police staff unions and the PAB.

Proposals will be developed for change in deployment arrangements in 4.88consultation with the police service, including the staff associations andtrade unions.

More stretching targets will be introduced to build on the improvements 4.89already delivered on police sickness absence.

Forces will be encouraged to assess people management skills in performance 4.91and Development Review (PDRs) at all levels; develop a competency framework for HR managers; and improve access to professional trainingfor HR specialists.

PPAF measures will be developed to reflect a broader range of HR activities – 4.92in particular the effectiveness of force PDR systems – and HMIC will continueto refine its baseline assessment activity in this area.

Chapter 5 – Ensuring Effectiveness

The forthcoming National Policing Plan will complement the approach set 5.8out in this paper and will be more strategic and concise than previous Plans.

In light of the Bichard report the government is committed to: 5.12

• introducing a statutory Code of Practice on police informationmanagement by the end of 2004;

• introducing a national IT system for handling and sharing policeintelligence by 2007;

• overhauling existing vetting procedures;

• developing more integrated and consistent arrangements for checkingthe suitability of those wishing to work with children.

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A new Code of Practice will be introduced to ensure NIM is used as effectively 5.19as possible and that the legal framework within which it must be applied is understood by all.

A single overall grading for each police force in England and Wales will 5.25be published.

Forces graded ‘excellent’, will have a general ‘inspection break’, for rolling 5.2812-month periods.

Forces graded ‘excellent’ will benefit from additional funding and freedoms 5.29on targets.

The existing statutory powers to take remedial action where police forces or 5.32Basic Command Units are underperforming will be revised. The collaborativeengagement and improvement process will be put on a statutory footing; with powers of compulsion (i.e. intervention) arising only where sufficient improvement fails to transpire.

As part of the process for amending the way the intervention power works, 5.34the Government proposes to revise the trigger to bring it more into line withthe wider set of information sources – other than HMIC inspection alone –which now inform our views of police force performance.

As part of a general review of the inspection arrangements for public services, 5.38the Government therefore intends to consult early in the New Year ondifferent, more coherent arrangements for the end-to-end inspection of theCriminal Justice System.

A National Policing Improvement Agency will be created. 5.42

Consideration will be given to the creation of dedicated teams across regions 5.59or groups of forces with the specific task of co-ordinating the effort against level two criminality in that region or area.

A duty will be placed on police authorities to co-operate with neighbouring 5.61authorities to help tackle cross border crime and to analyse the effectiveness of their forces in this area of activity.

The Home Secretary has commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of 5.63Constabulary (HMIC) to take an in-depth look at the issue of force structures in England and Wales.



Consideration will be given to further development of arrangements for lead 5.66forces or specialisms, in particular for those crimes which, by their verynature, are not confined to geographical force areas – such as hi-tech crimeor online paedophilia.

The partnership provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 will be 5.93formally reviewed.

Building on the review of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, a wider 5.93community safety strategy will be published in 2005.

In force areas which include unitary council areas only, each council should 5.101appoint its cabinet member with the responsibility for community safety tothe police authority.

There will no longer be a separate category of magistrate member on police 5.105authorities. Instead, given their experience and knowledge of the local area,where magistrate candidates apply to be independent members, there willbe a presumption that at least one such magistrate will be appointed as anindependent member on the authority.

The appointment of independent members to police authorities should be 5.106made on merit and ability, judged against a competency-based frameworkof criteria.

Candidates for police authority chair should be subject to a competency-based 5.107selection process.

A duty will be placed on police authorities to: 5.110

• take into account local policing priorities identified at Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) level when publishing force policing plans and strategies;

• oversee the relationship between CDRPs and neighbourhood bodies andensure the implementation of citizen involvement – making sure that these arrangements are not overly bureaucratic;

• co-operate with neighbouring authorities to help tackle cross border crime – known as ‘level 2’ crime – and analyse the effectiveness of their own forces’ performance in doing so;

• promote diversity within the police force and authority;

• conduct the chief constable’s performance appraisal and to decide pay and bonuses-with a requirement to consult Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofConstabulary (HMIC) in doing so.

06


• request inspection by HMIC or intervention by the Police Standards Unit in respect of their force or particular parts of it where they consider this to be necessary.

Police authorities will be given the power to request inspection by HMIC or 5.110intervention by the Police Standards Unit in respect of their force or particular parts of it.

The chief officer of a force should select his or her own senior management 5.112team – having consulted the police authority in drawing up a shortlistof candidates.

Accountability arrangements at neighbourhood, CDRP and force level should 5.113be undertaken collaboratively to minimise off-street activity by the police.

A robust and positive approach to efficiency to be at the core of police 5.115authority performance.

Police authorities, like police forces, should be subject to independent 5.116inspection in order to ensure public confidence.

In terms of intervention powers the provisions of the Local Government 5.117Act 1999 Act will be broadened to cover the whole range of the policeauthority’s obligations.

The suspension process for chief officers will be reviewed to ensure that it 5.121is as fair and straightforward as possible. Discussions will be held with theAssociation of Chief Police Officers, Association of Police Authorities andthe Chief Police Officers Staff Association on how best to ensure there areinformal as well as formal mechanisms for addressing chief officer performance issues.

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Appendices


Appendix I: Public Service Reform

i. The Government recognises that policing is,in some respects, necessarily different to otherpublic services. But the debate around furtherreform of policing needs, nonetheless, to beseen within the important context of theGovernment’s wider strategy on public servicereform. The Prime Minister has set out fourprinciples of public service reform, to deliverservices better designed around the needs oftheir customers – namely, national standards,devolution and delegation, flexibility andexpanding choice.1 Clearly, with the policeservice, there are some specific additionalprinciples which are of critical importance,such as the engagement of communities and acommitment to partnership working, which areequally as fundamental as the four principleslisted above. Our programme of police reform,like the Government’s wider agenda of publicservice reform, will build on all of these keyprinciples in order to deliver improvements.

ii. There is also an important read across betweenpolicing and other public services, particularlythe wider Criminal Justice System, localgovernment, transport, health, educationand children’s services.

Criminal Justice Reformiii. Together, the police and the other agencies that

make up the Criminal Justice System (CJS) deliverone of the major public services in the country.Strong criminal justice has a crucial role to play inreducing crime and anti-social behaviour andmaking people feel safer.

iv. We have already made a great deal of progress inmaking the CJS more effective and this is borneout by our results. 7% more offences werebrought to justice between March 2002 andMarch 2004, while public confidence in thesystem, which had been declining, has increasedby 3% in the past twelve months. But we want toachieve more. The Home Office, the Departmentfor Constitutional Affairs and the Office of theAttorney General published a five-year strategicplan for the CJS2 in July 2004 which set outfurther reform for our criminal justice services tomake sure that we have a modern and efficientsystem, which is visible and responsive to the law-abiding citizen.

v. To show what reform will have been achieved infive years’ time, we have devised the followingvision, which describes the delivery of justicein 2008:

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1 The Prime Minister’s 4 principles of public service reform are: 1) national standards that really matter to the public, within aframework of clear accountability, designed to ensure that citizens have the right to high quality services wherever they live;2) devolution and delegation to the front line, giving local leaders responsibility and accountability for delivery, and the opportunityto design and develop services around the needs of local people; 3) flexibility for public service organisations and their staff toachieve the diversity of service provision needed to respond to the wide range of customer aspirations; and 4) expanding choicefor the customer, helping to ensure that services are designed around their customers with an element of contestability betweenalternative suppliers.

2 Cutting Crime, Delivering Justice, published July 2004.

147Building communities, Beating Crime |

Community justice inLiverpoolThe Liverpool Community Justice Centre isbased on the philosophy behind the RedHook Community Justice Centre in New York,using a problem solving approach to tacklelocal priorities.

The Community Justice Centre, which will beoperational by the end of 2004, will tackle thequality of life crimes and anti-social behaviourissues that can blight communal life. It will actas a focus for the community, with the multi-purpose building bringing services andfacilities to local people. Within the building,there will be a courtroom, plus services whichare available to help tackle offending, such asdrug counselling, debt and housing advice,and basic education skills. Services within thecentre will not just be offered to offendersbut to any member of the community on awalk-in basis.

The local community has been involved inthe development of the Centre and will beinvolved in its operation through a volunteerforce and community advisory panels. Closepartnership with the police will ensure thatlocal police priorities and the way cases arehandled in the Centre reflect genuinecommunity priorities.

The pilot marks an innovative departure inthe delivery of justice, providing anopportunity to respond to communitypriorities and to have a positive and tangibleeffect on people’s everyday lives.

• the public will have confidence that the CJS iseffective and serves all communities fairly;

• victims and witnesses will receive a consistenthigh standard of service from all criminal justiceagencies;

• more offences will be brought to justice througha modern and efficient justice process;

• rigorous enforcement will revolutionisecompliance with sentences and orders of thecourt; and

• criminal justice will be a joined up, modern andwell-run service, and an excellent place to workfor people of all backgrounds.

vi. If people believe that the CJS is capable ofresponding swiftly and effectively when a crimehas been committed, this will help to reassure thepublic and reduce the fear of crime. Improvingbasic service performance is crucial to buildingpublic confidence that the CJS is effective. But itis also vital that the system communicates betterwith staff, users and the public, introducesconsistently high service standards across CJSagencies, and responds demonstrably tocommunity concerns.

vii. We plan to improve communications so that thepublic has a clear understanding of the CJS andhow it is being reformed. Staff have a keyadvocacy role to play, so we will engage them inthis task. And we are pioneering ways ofimproving community engagement. For example,we are introducing specialist court hearings onanti-social behaviour, domestic violence anddrugs to respond better to problems in localareas and provide a targeted approach tooffending, while the Community Justice Centrepilot in North Liverpool will trial a community-based response to tackling low-level crime andanti-social behaviour and their causes.


viii. Raising customer service standards across thesystem is important. But we need to devoteparticular time and resources to improving theway victims and witnesses are treated. Althoughthe chance of becoming a victim of crime is nowat its lowest for twenty years, the treatment ofvictims and witnesses often falls well short ofwhat they should be able to expect.

ix. To address this, we are introducing a statutoryVictims Code of Practice. This will set out theminimum standards of service that victims canexpect. But to galvanise action to improveservices and focus criminal justice agencies onparticular areas which need attention, we haveidentified seven national priorities. These are:

• victims and witnesses are given information aboutservices and about their cases;

• victims and witnesses receive a consistently highquality service from CJS staff;

• victims and witnesses who require emotional orpractical help are offered the relevant services;

• victims’ views are sought and used throughoutthe CJS process;

• the needs of vulnerable and intimidated witnessesare identified and met; and intimidation istackled;

• the experience of victims and witnesses going tocourt is improved; and

• the needs of victims of domestic violence are metand repeat victimisation is tackled.

x. Delivering these priorities will make a radicaldifference to the experience of victims andwitnesses, in turn building public confidence inthe system, and making witnesses more willing toparticipate in the criminal justice process again.

xi. Public agencies also need to acknowledge andunderstand that being a victim of anti-socialbehaviour is a different experience to being avictim of other types of crime. Tackling, nottolerating, anti-social behaviour is aboutconfronting unacceptable behaviour. Thiscan be difficult, especially when problems incommunities are longstanding. Concerns aboutintimidation and reprisals can act as a powerfuldisincentive for people to report incidents,leaving problem behaviour unchecked andmaking it difficult for the police and localauthorities to tackle anti-social behavioureffectively. To address this, the Governmentrecently announced a series of new measuresaimed at helping victims of anti-social behaviour.These include measures to tackle intimidation ofvictims and witnesses and an expansion of thenumber of anti-social behaviour courts by morethan three-fold from twelve to forty-one.

xii. Our key goal is to reduce crime. And when acrime is committed, the public has a right toexpect that the CJS will do all it can to bring theperpetrator to justice. This requires high qualitypolicing to detect the crime; close CrownProsecution Service (CPS) and policeco-operation as the ‘prosecution team’ to ensurethat the right charge is made and that robustcases are brought to court; proper care,protection and support for victims and otherwitnesses; and collaborative working by criminaljustice agencies to make sure that the trial goesahead on the scheduled day.

xiii. In order to bring more offences to justice, we aremaking changes at every stage of the criminaljustice process:

• the Fixed Penalty Notice Scheme will be extendedto a wider range of low level offences which thepolice can deal with as effectively outside court;and the use of conditional cautioning is alsobeing piloted;

• improving technology and the spread of goodpractice will help the police to raise detectionrates;

• by March 2007, the CPS will support every policeforce by providing 24 hour advice seven days aweek on their investigations and will determinethe charges. This will result in more defendantspleading guilty earlier in the process and betterprepared cases for trial;

• through the Effective Trial Management Scheme,we will make sure that where cases do need tocome to trial, they arrive at court ready toproceed, reducing the numbers of wasted trialhearings by a fifth and in the magistrates’ courtsby a third by 2008;

• new police-CPS Witness Care Units will operate inall areas by the end of 2005 to support witnessesas their cases progress, in order to raise witnessattendance at court and cut the number of caseswhich collapse because the witness has notturned up.

xiv. Ensuring that the decisions and orders of thecourt are carried out swiftly is a key test of theeffectiveness of the CJS and a key driver ofsuccessful CJS performance in bringing offencesto justice and maintaining public confidence. Firsttime compliance is our primary goal, but whendefendants and offenders do not co-operate, weneed to take robust enforcement action.

xv. We will improve enforcement performance acrossthe board year on year – increasing defendantattendance and ensuring the swift execution ofwarrants; increasing the percentage of finescollected; bringing community penalty breachesto court more quickly; and recovering moreassets. We will do this by making sure that peopleon the frontline have the right powers, tools andinformation to deliver, and by providing financialincentives to improving performance.

xvi. We will not achieve our vision for the deliveryof justice without effective partnership workingbetween the police and other CJS agencies,backed by modern technology. Collaborativeworking at both a national and local level isbeginning to be embedded firmly across the CJS.At a national level, the creation of the NationalCriminal Justice Board, on which Ministers fromthe three CJS departments – the Home Office,the Department for Constitutional Affairs and theOffice of the Attorney General – plus heads of thecriminal justice agencies, the Association of PoliceAuthorities and the Association of Chief PoliceOfficers, and the judiciary are represented, hasprovided strengthened leadership. Theestablishment of the Office for Criminal JusticeReform, a cross-departmental team that supportsall CJS agencies in working together to provide animproved service to the public, has given jointworking a further boost. And at local level, LocalCriminal Justice Boards, set up in April 2003 tobring together the heads of criminal justiceagencies to work in partnership, have got off toan excellent start.

xvii. An unparalleled investment in moderntechnology for the criminal justice system willalso help to make this vision a reality. By 2008, the£2 billion invested in IT will have transformed ITinfrastructure and systems, increasing efficiencyand effectiveness. For the first time, all criminaljustice professionals will have access to standardoffice applications, such as email, there will benational systems for managing cases for eachcriminal justice agency, and these casemanagement systems will be linked so thatinformation can be shared between agencies,speeding up key processes and improvingdata quality.



Local Government xviii. Local government has a key role in providing

strong and visible leadership to communities andworking to join up services to meet local needsand priorities. Councils act as champions for theirlocal area, promoting the well-being of thecommunity as a whole and providing a clear lineof democratic accountability between decision-makers and the people they serve. There hasbeen substantial progress in developing this rolein recent years. To build on this, the DeputyPrime Minister recently launched a debate on thefuture of local government,3 which has clear andimportant implications for many areas of theGovernment’s work, particularly communitysafety. The debate will focus on how localgovernment can harness its role to deliver betteroutcomes for people and places through workingmore effectively with partners at local, regionaland national level. Key themes include developingstrong and vibrant community leadership,improving citizen engagement and participation,and improving service delivery and performance– all of which are integral to the Government’svision for police reform.

xix. Local authorities are particularly well placed tohave an impact on the social, economic andenvironmental causes of crime through thecommunity-based services they provide. Througheducation, social care, youth, leisure, transport,housing, environmental and other services,councils can and do work effectively to preventcrime, anti-social behaviour and substancemisuse. As a result of good quality planning,design and street lighting, for example, localauthorities can help to reduce crime and disorderand the fear of crime. Through effective

management of the night time economy, they canmake a significant contribution to reducing levelsof alcohol-related crime and disorder in town andcity centres, as well as playing a key role inreducing other forms of anti-social behavioursuch as begging and nuisance neighbours. Andthrough enforcement of licensing and otherregulations they can help reduce alcohol anddrug-related crime, and help to ensure thatalcohol and substance misusers and their familiesreceive treatment and support. The Licensing Act2003 transfers licensing powers to new licensingauthorities, which are generally local authorities.From November 2005, when the old licensinglaws end and the new laws begin, they will havean important role to play in the prevention ofcrime and disorder.

Environmental crimeAnti-social behaviour includes litter, fly-tipping, graffiti, fly-posting, dog-fouling andother problems that impact on the physicalenvironment. These kind of problemsdegrade public spaces, are the subject ofmany complaints made by the public and canbe significant criminal offences. Enviro-crimescan also make people feel afraid. In addition,when these problems are allowed to takeover an area, other forms of anti-socialbehaviour may proliferate. Abandoned andother ‘nuisance’ vehicles in particular havea negative effect on the quality of the localenvironment. They can attract vandalism,rubbish and arson and can be the result of,or the means to commit, a crime.

3 The future of local government: Developing a 10 year vision, published 27 July 2004

xx. Central to the effectiveness of local government ispartnership working. This is at its most effectivewhen local authorities encourage Crime andDisorder Reduction Partnerships, Drug ActionTeams and Local Strategic Partnerships to workmore closely together and ensure that thegreatest impact of their community safety effort isin local areas of greatest need. The Home OfficeCrime Reduction Programme helps the mostvulnerable members of communities throughidentifying, developing and promulgating goodpractice on a range of interventions, includingtarget hardening. The 42% reduction in burglarysince 1997 is a good example of target hardeninghelping to bring about reductions in crime, whilecar park strategies have contributed to a fall invehicle theft. This approach has been mostsuccessful when combined with initiatives whichalso educate communities on the steps they cantake to help themselves. Businesses too have akey role to play here – which is why theGovernment has facilitated joint business/localauthority work to make improvements to thequality of their local environments through thecreation of Business Improvement Districts. The

Environmental crime (cont)Tackling environmental problems producestangible results. That is why the Governmentis committed to work in this area,complementing the Cleaner, Safer, GreenerStrategy. Moreover, the benefits of actionagainst environmental anti-social behaviourgo beyond keeping streets and estates cleanand free from graffiti and other enviro-crimeproblems. Action of this nature can help tobuild confidence in the effectiveness ofpublic services.

Home Office is due to publish a summary of theCommercial Victimisation Study at the end of2004, which will provide useful information onlevels of commercial crime.

xxi. A further critical area of partnership workingrelates to children and young people. It is vitalthat all agencies that deliver services for childrenand young people work effectively together inorder to reduce young people’s involvement incrime and substance misuse. Local authoritieswork with children and young people at risk,undertake targeted work with persistent truantsand excluded pupils to prevent them falling intocriminal activity and provide leisure activities tohelp bring down levels of anti-social behaviour.Organisations such as Connexions, Sure Start andYouth Inclusion Programmes have a critical roleto play. Close partnership working will be furtherfacilitated by the reforms to children and youngpeople’s services following the Green Paper,Every Child Matters. These reforms areconsidered further in the section below oneducation and children’s services.

Transportxxii. One of the Government’s aims is for a safe and

secure transport system. Crime and the fear ofcrime whilst walking to, waiting for and travellingon public transport can restrict people accessinglocal services, particularly in socially excludedareas. Partnership working is essential in tacklingcrime and fear of crime across the wholetransport journey. Tackling transport crime canalso lead to the apprehension of offenders ofother crimes. For example, in London theTransport Operational Command Unit is apartnership between Transport for London andthe Metropolitan Police. Revenue ProtectionInspectors board buses to inspect tickets. If apassenger fails to produce a ticket and refuses to



give their name and address, the police are calledand the passenger is taken to a police station forfingerprinting and searching. In the course of 7.5million passenger checks in 2003-04, over 13,500penalty fares and 35,000 notices for prosecutionwere issued, including for theft, deception,handling stolen goods, disorderly behaviour anddrug offences.

Healthxxiii. In March 2004, the Secretary of State for Health

launched a consultation on the strategy forimproving health and the provision of healthservices.4 The consultation sought views on howa real difference could be made to people’s livesby promoting a healthy lifestyle for all. The aimwas to ensure the appropriate local environment,services, facilities and information to enablecitizens to choose a healthy lifestyle. There is aclear link between the health and communitysafety agendas, with crime clearly impactingnegatively on health, in particular on mentalhealth. Citizens need the confidence of a safe andcrime-free environment in which they can accessthe services and facilities that they need to stayhealthy. We, as Government, must join up ourefforts to improve the all-round environment andquality of life available to citizens so that theyin turn can take personal responsibility fortheir health.

xxiv. There is also a strong link with health in relationto drug and alcohol treatment. This partnershipof interest has been underpinned by the fact thatsince April 2004, Primary Care Trusts in Englandand health authorities in Wales have been formalmembers of Crime and Disorder ReductionPartnerships. Their new status as full partnerswithin the partnerships is enabling health trustsand practitioners to have real influence in shapinglocal action to tackle crime, drug and alcoholmisuse and the causes of crime.

Education and children’s servicesxxv. The provision of education and children’s

services is also crucial to the success of theGovernment’s wider vision of public servicereform and to the safety of our communities.The Secretary of State for Education and Skillspublished, in July 2004, his Department’s five yearstrategy for children and learners.5 The themesrunning through that strategy accord with thoseoutlined in this policy paper. The vision is of asystem which is tailored to the needs of the userand local priorities, with flexibility for those at thefront line to demonstrate leadership and deliverexcellence. Above all, the aim is to have localservices working in effective and successfulpartnerships, with local accountability, communityregeneration and high standards for those whoneed and use these services.

4 Choosing Health? A consultation on improving people’s health, published 3 March 2004

5 Available at www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/extendedschools/News/fiveyearstrategy

xxvi. The police service already has an important rolein working with young people in schools and thewider community. The Department for Educationand Skills, Association of Chief Police Officers andthe Youth Justice Board jointly lead Safer SchoolsPartnerships, where police work in partnershipwith pupils, school staff and the wider communityto provide a safe and secure school community,ensure that young people remain in education,challenge unacceptable behaviour and reduce theprevalence of crime and victimisation amongstyoung people. By working with young people toprevent crime and disorder at an early age, policeofficers can develop good relationships whichextend outside the school gates and into localcommunities. There are currently over 400schools with Safer Schools Partnership policeofficers.

xxvii. Children’s services are undergoing a majorprogramme of whole-system change that will beparticularly relevant to the police. The ChildrenBill, which is currently before Parliament,provides for a duty to be placed on the police andother local agencies to co-operate with the localauthority and its partners in making arrangementsto improve the wellbeing of all children. Theintention is for this to come into effect from April2005, with the aim of improving these outcomesfor children and young people by the differentagencies, whose work impacts on children, youngpeople and their families, working together toaddress the needs of each child or young personin an integrated way.

xxviii. The duty to co-operate underpins the movetowards Children’s Trusts. Thirty-five PathfinderAuthorities are already piloting trustarrangements, which will mean moreprofessionals working together in effectivemulti-disciplinary teams to tackle cultural andprofessional divides. The duty to have regard tothe need to safeguard and promote children’swelfare placed on the police and other agenciesis an important step in ensuring that all agenciesplay their roles individually and collectively insafeguarding children from harm. This integratedfront line working relies upon effectivepartnership working of all providers of servicesfor children and young people, for examplehealth, education, social services, youth services,Connexions, Sure Start, Youth Offending Teamsand Drug Action Teams. Children’s Trusts willprovide a mechanism for partnership working,needs analysis, joint planning and commissioningof services and accountability arrangements thatmake integrated front-line delivery possible.



Appendix II: Police Performance

Assessing performance – datai. Police performance in England and Wales is

assessed by what is known as the PolicingPerformance Assessment Framework (PPAF) –which measures performance against seven keyareas. One area focuses on force performanceagainst local priorities, while the other six focuson reducing crime; investigating crime; citizen-focus; promoting public safety; providingassistance; and the use of resources. In keepingwith the approach to policing outlined in thispolicy paper, improvement in all these areas iscrucial to delivering greater public satisfactionand better trust and confidence in policing acrossall communities.

ii. Information is also managed in a new way on asystem called iQuanta, which provides policeforces, police authorities and local partnershipswith real-time and, critically, comparative, up tothe minute information on the performance of allforces, the Basic Command Units (BCUs) withinthem and the 354 Crime and Disorder ReductionPartnerships in England and the 22 CommunitySafety Partnerships in Wales.

iii. This focus on performance has changed the wayin which forces operate very much for the better.At local (BCU) level, BCUs use real-time data andthe National Intelligence Model methods toanalyse crime trends in their area, to understandwho their prolific offenders are, and localconcerns, and to prioritise accordingly. BCUcommanders and heads of support branches arethen held to account at the police force level byits leadership as part of a regular and effectivereview of the performance of the force. This iscomplemented by the role of the police authority,which is responsible for ensuring that the chiefofficers of the force are delivering on thepriorities of the local policing plan.

iv. Thanks to iQuanta and the work of the PoliceStandards Unit, a force is now able to see itsposition relative to other comparable forces andBCUs within them. And finally, at a national level,the Police Standards Unit is able to take anoverview – comparing forces and BCUs across thecountry and highlighting where performance isgood, and where it isn’t. When performance fallsshort, the Police Standards Unit can then workwith the forces and BCUs concerned to ensurepractical help is given to make improvements.

Police PerformanceManagement GuideThe Police Standards Unit PerformanceManagement Guide sets out what a forceneeds to be doing if it is to be well-organisedand able to drive and sustain high standardsof performance. The 10 hallmarks are:

• Clarity about the roles and responsibilitiesof the police authority, chief constable andmanagers – at all levels – for performance

• A framework which links performance tocorporate planning, budgeting andresource management

• Chief constable ownership and activeinvolvement in the force’s performancereview process

• Performance review structures which holdstaff to account, replicated from top tobottom and across operational and supportdepartments

• Recognition of good performance but witha relentless follow-up where performancefalls short

• A culture of continuous improvementevident throughout the organisation

• Clearly articulated priorities which arewidely understood by officers and policestaff at every level of the force

• Individual Performance and DevelopmentReview objectives and appraisal linkeddirectly to performance

• Timely, accurate and relevant data toinform decision-making

• Performance data is easily captured andclearly reported

Role of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofConstabulary (HMIC)

v. The Government recognises that performance isnot just about figures, vital though they are. Therole of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary(HMIC) is critically important in terms ofinspecting forces to ensure that they aredelivering effective services. HMIC’s principalmeans of underpinning this work has been itsnew baseline assessments, which were publishedfor the first time in June 2004. These assessmentsset baselines for particular activities against whichforces should be performing. Movement from thebaseline – either improvement or deterioration –is then identified. This allows HMIC’s subsequentinvolvement to be focused on the areas within aforce that need most work.

vi. These changes mean that performance in thepolice is now measured for both quantity andquality in a far more sophisticated way than eventhree years ago. Combining the Police StandardsUnit’s objective, quantitative view of performancewith HMIC's qualitative assessments providesdefinitive, up-to-date appraisal of how a force isserving the public in comparison to other forces.



Appendix III: Serious Organised Crime Agency

i. Organised crime reaches into every community,ruining lives, driving other crime and instillingfear. It manifests itself most graphically in drugaddiction, in sexual exploitation and in gun crime.It is also big business. Trafficking in people anddrugs, counterfeiting and financial crime have aUK turnover of many billions of pounds annually.

ii. Organised crime groups are also highlysophisticated, working in tight knit structures andprepared to use ruthless measures to achievetheir objectives. Their illicit activities areunderpinned by sophisticated money launderingoperations, which turn the proceeds of crime intobankable profits. Groups operate acrossinternational frontiers, their influence corruptinggovernment and law agencies in many statesworld wide, which desperately need good andhonest government as a foundation forprosperity, order and security.

iii. A successful approach to organised crime istherefore inseparable from our wider effort toimprove the overall effectiveness of policing inthis country and to make vulnerable communitiesand law-abiding citizens safer. It requires that ourpolice forces, our prosecutors, our intelligenceservices and our national enforcement agencieswork together still more closely. Accordingly,having undertaken an extensive review of thecase for a single agency against organised crime,the Home Secretary announced his intention tocreate a Serious Organised Crime Agency inFebruary 2004. The findings were set out in theWhite Paper “One Step Ahead”, launched on29 March 20046.

iv. The Government intends the new Agency to beup and running by April 2006 bringing togetherthe National Crime Squad, the National CriminalIntelligence Service, HM Customs and Exciseinvestigative and intelligence work on seriousdrug trafficking and recovering related assets, andthe Immigration Service’s work on organisedimmigration crime. The new organisation will bedriven by intelligence and focused on reducingthe enormous harm caused by organised crime toindividuals, to communities and to the well beingof the country.

v. The Agency will be a wholly new body, operatingin new ways and driven by the intelligenceassessment of what will be most effective in termsof harm reduction. By removing theorganisational boundaries that divide the presentagencies, the Government expects the Agency todeliver significantly enhanced operationaleffectiveness with the objective of making the UKone of the least attractive locations in the worldfor organised crime to operate.

vi. The Agency will fight, at a national andinternational level, the full range of organisedcrime activities including:

• Serious drug trafficking and the recovery ofrelated criminal assets

• People smuggling/trafficking

• Firearms trafficking

• Money laundering of the proceeds of acquisitivecrime

• Extortion

• Cyber crime

• Counterfeiting

6 One Step Ahead: a 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime (March 2004, Cm 6167)

vii. The Agency will continue to work closely with thepolice service on intelligence and operations toensure that there is an effective link between itsefforts to combat organised crime at nationallevel and the work being done by police forcesat local level.

viii. The Government plans to legislate at the earliestavailable opportunity to create the new Agency.The legislation will set out the constitutional andgovernance arrangements of the new Agency,provide it and its staff with necessary powers, andset out its accountability to Ministers. In theinterim period, before the Agency comes formallyinto existence, Sir Stephen Lander (formerDirector General of the Security Service) andWilliam Hughes (former Director General of theNational Crime Squad) have already beenappointed as Chairman and Director Generaldesignate respectively. They took up their posts inSeptember 2004 and will play crucial roles insetting the direction and making the key earlydecisions in the lead-in to the formalestablishment of the Agency and in planningand delivering an orderly transition.



Appendix IV: Crime and Disorder Act 1998

Backgroundi. If we are to be successful in the longer term in

tackling the social, economic and environmentaldrivers of crime and disorder, collaborative, co-ordinated, community based action must takeplace within an enabling legislative framework,supported by a strong relationship betweencentral and local government. The Crime andDisorder Act 1998 recognised the centralimportance of collaboration. It placed a duty onlocal authorities and the police to work inpartnership and with a wide range of otheragencies from the public, private, voluntary andcommunity sectors to develop and implementstrategies to reduce crime and disorder at locallevel. Following the Police Reform Act 2002,this duty was extended to police authorities, fireauthorities, Primary Care Trusts (in England) andhealth authorities (in Wales). Similarly, the remitof partnerships was broadened to include actionto address the misuse of drugs.

ii. There are now 354 Crime and Disorder ReductionPartnerships in England and 22 Community SafetyPartnerships in Wales. Some work well,implementing robust multi-agency strategiesshaped by the needs and concerns of localpeople, contributing to sustained reductions incrime and tangible improvements in local qualityof life. However, some CDRPs are demonstrablyless effective than others. For example,partnerships sometimes struggle to maintain a fullcontribution from key agencies. Lack of clarityabout roles and responsibilities and blurred linesof accountability can lead to some agenciesabrogating their responsibility for crimereduction. Furthermore, under presentarrangements, CDRPs are neither fully visible

nor properly accountable to the communitiesthey serve, nor are they firmly embedded in thelocal democratic framework. These issues lie atthe heart of the Government’s reformprogramme.

iii. The Government’s overriding aim is to makeCDRPs the most effective possible vehicle fortackling crime, anti-social behaviour andsubstance misuse in their communities. Insupport of this, we intend to review formally thepartnership provisions of the Crime and DisorderAct 1998 (as amended by the Police Reform Act2002). The review will consider which aspects ofexisting legislation are most effective and whichhave been less successful and why. It willrecommend legislative and other changes toenable local agencies to work together moreeffectively with local people to combat crime,anti-social behaviour and drug misuse in theircommunities.

Scopeiv. The review will consider the provisions outlined

in sections 5-7, 17 and 115 of the Crime andDisorder Act 1998, along with sections 97 and 98of the Police Reform Act 2002. More specifically, itwill explore:

• Role – the role of CDRPs, including theirresponsibility for determining strategic prioritiesfor local community safety and delivering on them;

• Accountability – how the work of partnershipsis scrutinised and how CDRPs can be held toaccount through the local democratic process.This will include examining the potential for usingscrutiny committees and other governancemechanisms for this purpose;

• Inspection – making sure individual agencies’inspection regimes take account of theircontribution to partnership working; andidentifying ways of assessing partnershipperformance through joint inspection of CDRPs;

• Community engagement – how partnershipsbest engage in ongoing dialogue with all sectionsof the communities they serve, how this informsCDRP decision-making and how CDRPsdemonstrate responsiveness to the needs andconcerns of local people;

• CDRP membership – how to ensure the rightpeople are working together at the right level tocombat crime, disorder and the misuse of drugs,with clearly identified roles and responsibilities, aswell as consequences for poor levels ofparticipation. We will consider the role of electedcouncillors as well as potential new responsibleauthorities;

• Mainstreaming (section 17) – how communitysafety can be most effectively mainstreamed intokey partners’ business, including systematicmechanisms for assessing and rewardingcompliance, and specific consequences of non-compliance. The review will also assess whethersection 17 currently covers the right agencies andbodies and will recommend extending its scopewhere appropriate;

• Two-tier working – how best to managedelivery in areas with two tiers of localgovernment, given that CDRPs are sited at districtlevel but many of the functions and servicescrucial to sustained crime reduction are theresponsibility of the county council. We will alsoconsider the implications for, and potential roleof, elected regional assemblies in respect ofpartnership working to tackle crime;

• CDRP mergers – whether to extend thecircumstances in which small adjoining CDRPsshould be merged in order to achieve greaterefficiency;

• Boundaries – the effect of partner agencies’different boundaries on partnership work andhow best to remove the barriers these differencesin boundaries sometimes cause;

• Drugs and alcohol – reinforcing the new jointapproach to tackling local crime and disorderproblems in conjunction with issues around themisuse of drugs and alcohol. This will includeassessing how far the integration of CDRPs andDrug Action Teams has taken place to reflect this;

• Other local agencies – how the work of CDRPsfeeds into and connects with that of other localpartnerships, such as Local Strategic Partnerships,Local Criminal Justice Boards, Youth OffendingTeams and the wider Criminal Justice System;

• Funding – to review the arrangements by whichCDRPs fund and commission services from thepolice and other delivery partners in support oflocal priorities; and

• Data sharing – how best to encourage betterdata and information sharing between agenciesfor the purposes of crime reduction.

The review will be conducted between November2004 and January 2005 with the directinvolvement of key stakeholders. It will link withwider developments in public sector reform, mostnotably police and local government reform, andbe underpinned by an unambiguous focus onraising partnership performance throughimproving accountability and visibility.



Appendix V: Police Authority Membership

i. The proposals for changes to the membership ofpolice authorities set out in Chapter Five willaffect the means by which independent and, insome areas, councillor members of policeauthorities are appointed. This Appendix sets outthe approach for both.

Independent membersii. The Government’s proposal is that there should

be an appointment panel for independentmembers for each police force area, consisting offive members, rather than the three members ofthe present selection panels. Of the five membersof the new appointment panel, three should bedrawn from the police authority, and two shouldbe independent of the police authority, one beingappointed by the Home Secretary and the otherbeing an independent assessor trained andaccredited by the Office of the Commissioner forPublic Appointments or other similar body.

iii. The appointments process should, throughout,be conducted in line with the spirit of theCommissioner for Public Appointments’ Code ofPractice and the Cabinet Office Best PracticeGuide for making public appointments.Appointments should be made on merit andability, judged against a competency-basedframework of criteria, to complement the existingrange of skills, knowledge and experience ofpolice authority members. There should also beset criteria about diversity (race, gender, age,skills, for example) and a requirement to ensureproper engagement and out-reach to get the rightpeople onto the authority. Independent membersselected by the appointment panel should berestricted to two terms (eight years) ofmembership.

iv. The Home Secretary’s current role of halving thesize of the long-list of candidates in each policeauthority area before returning the list back to

police authorities should end. However, theGovernment believes that the Home Secretaryshould retain some fall-back powers througha power of veto over the appointment ofcandidates who have been sifted andinterviewed by the appointments panel andthrough the appointment of one member ofthe appointments panel.

v. The sift and interview record sheets of thechosen candidates should be sent to the HomeOffice and be available to Ministers afterinterview, together with a report signed by allmembers of the panel, explaining the process andthe reasons for the proposed appointment orappointments. In the event that the HomeSecretary was dissatisfied with any name on theproposed list of appointments, the next name inorder of preference should be chosen andreasons given for the Home Secretary’s vetobeing applied (except in the case of a breach ofconfidentiality, ongoing police or other enquiries,or reasons of national security). In accordancewith good practice, there should be a properaudit trail covering any such decisions. TheGovernment believes that this change shouldresult in much less frustration among potentialindependent members who go through the firststage of the application process, only to berejected according to unclear criteria before thefinal appointments process begins.

Illustrative examples of effect ofproposals on police authoritycouncillor membership

vi. Where police force areas include unitary councilsonly (seven English forces in total – Cleveland,Greater Manchester, Humberside, Merseyside,South Yorkshire, West Midlands and WestYorkshire and all four Welsh forces – Gwent,South Wales, Dyfed-Powys and North Wales), theGovernment proposes that the councillor with

cabinet responsibility for community safetyshould be appointed to the police authority.Any remaining councillor places would be filledon a basis designed to ensure that the overallcouncillor membership of the police authorityreflected political balance of the force area as awhole and that there was a geographical spreadof councillor members. All corners of the forcearea with their potentially very differentcommunities and issues should be representedon the police authority. The presumption wouldbe that no police authority would have fewer than 17 members and no authority would havemore than 21 members. The current balancewhere councillor members had a majority onthe police authority of 50% plus one would alsobe maintained.

Unitary councilsvii. Where a force area included only unitary councils,

the presumption would be that each unitarycouncil’s councillor with cabinet responsibility forcommunity safety would be a member of thepolice authority. For any remaining councillorplaces, two of the deciding criteria should bedesigned to ensure that the overall councillormembership of the police authority shouldreflect, wherever possible, the political balance ofthe force area as a whole and ensure that therewas a geographical spread of councillor members.

viii. Example 1 – Greater Manchester Police forcearea covers the metropolitan districts of Bolton,Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford,Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. Theseten councils would all be represented on theGreater Manchester Police Authority by theircabinet members with responsibility forcommunity safety. To maintain the 50% plus onemajority of councillor members on the policeauthority, there would be nine independentmembers, making 19 in total.

ix. Example 2 – South Yorkshire Police force areacovers the metropolitan districts of Barnsley,Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. These fourcouncils would be represented on the SouthYorkshire Police Authority by their cabinetmembers with responsibility for community safetyplus five other councillors chosen to reflect theoverall political balance and ensure geographicalspread. Thus, the police authority would havenine councillor members and eight independentmembers, making a total membership of 17 andmaintaining the 50% plus one councillor majority.

x. Example 3 – Dyfed-Powys Police force area coversthe counties of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire,Pembrokeshire and Powys. These four councilswould be represented on the Dyfed-Powys PoliceAuthority by their cabinet members withresponsibility for community safety, plus fiveother councillors chosen to reflect the overallpolitical balance and ensure geographical spread.Thus the police authority would have ninecouncillor members and eight independentmembers, making a total membership of 17 andmaintaining the 50% plus one councillor majority.

Combination of county, unitary anddistrict councils

xi. The Government recognises the complexity oftwo-tier local government arrangements. Thisbeing the case, we will discuss further withstakeholders proposals for change in these areas.We have developed one option for considerationon councillor police authority membership inareas with a combination of county, unitary anddistrict councils, which we set out below.

xii. Where a force area included both unitary andtwo-tier councils, the presumption would be thatunitary councils would be represented by theircouncillor with cabinet responsibility forcommunity safety thus ensuring that the biggest



population centres in the force area wereguaranteed representation on the policeauthority. Assuming an authority with 17members, councillors would still have nine places.Five of these would go to the unitary and countycouncils and four to the district councils. Two ofthe deciding criteria for filling these four placeswould be that the overall councillor membershipof the authority should reflect the politicalbalance of the force area as a whole and thatthere was a geographical spread of councillormembers. This might mean district councillors onpolice authorities would have to cover more thanone district but part of the selection processshould be to establish that they are able andwilling to do so.

xiii. Example 3 – Hertfordshire Constabulary forcearea covers the county of Hertfordshire and tendistrict councils (North Hertfordshire, EastHertfordshire, Stevenage, Broxbourne,Welwyn/Hatfield, St Albans, Dacorum, ThreeRivers, Watford and Hertsmere). To make the splitbetween county and district councillors morestraightforward, it might be sensible to give theauthority 11 councillor places and tenindependents, making its total membership 21.Thus, the county council would be representedby the councillor with cabinet responsibility forcommunity safety plus five other councillorschosen to reflect the political balance of thecounty council and to ensure geographicalspread. The remaining five councillor placeswould be allocated to councillors from the districtcouncils covering two districts each within theforce area.

xiv. Example 4 – Leicestershire Constabulary forcearea covers the county of Leicestershire and theunitary councils of Leicester and Rutland, plusseven districts (North West Leicestershire,Charnwood, Melton, Hinckley and Bosworth,

Blaby, Oadby and Wigton and Harborough). Giventhe population spread, it might be appropriate toallocate two councillor places on the policeauthority to both Leicestershire County Counciland Leicester Council and one to Rutland to givethe county and unitary areas the five membersthis approach proposes. Again, the councillorwith cabinet responsibility for community safetyon these three councils would be the policeauthority member with the second Leicestershireand Leicester councillor places and the fourdistrict councillor places selected with regard topolitical balance and geographic spread. The splitbetween the seven district councils is notstraightforward and might have to be decided onpopulation spread, for example. The overallauthority size would be 17 members.

xv. Example 5 – Bedfordshire Police force areacovers the county of Bedfordshire and the unitarycouncil of Luton plus three district councils(Bedford, Mid Bedfordshire and SouthBedfordshire). The five councillor members fromthe county and unitary councils might comprisethe community safety cabinet member fromBedfordshire County Council plus two othercouncillors and the community safety cabinetmember from Luton Council plus one othercouncillor. The additional councillors and the fourdistrict councillors would also be chosen withregard to political balance and geographicalspread with, perhaps, two for Bedford and oneeach for Mid and South Bedfordshire. Again, theoverall authority size would be 17 members.

xvi. We are interested in hearing views on therelative strengths of this option forcouncillor membership of police authoritiesor hearing about other possibleformulations and models.

Government and Home Secretary• The Home Secretary has overall responsibility for

ensuring the delivery of an efficient and effectivepolice service in England and Wales.

• The national framework set by the HomeSecretary includes the key priorities for policingand the means by which achievement of thesepriorities will be measured. These are set out inthe National Policing Plan, presented toParliament on an annual basis.

• Performance monitoring, evaluation andmanagement are co-ordinated at national level bythe Police Standards Unit acting on behalf of theHome Secretary with support, engagement and,ultimately, intervention, when necessary, whereperformance is failing.

• Certain policing approaches (e.g. the NationalIntelligence Model NIM) and technology (e.g.Airwave) are prescribed nationally to ensureconsistency and economies of scale.

• The Home Secretary has national responsibilityfor counter-terrorism and the Security Service andconsequent oversight of force level input to thenational counter-terrorist effort.

• The Home Secretary and the Deputy PrimeMinister work together to ensure there isadequate provision in the local governmentsettlement for the central police grant.

• Pay and conditions, pensions and regulations areset nationally to ensure fairness and consistency.

Chief Officers• Chief officers have operational responsibility for

effective and efficient policing in their force area.

• Deployment of officers and staff and efficientresource usage are the responsibility of chiefofficers.

• Performance monitoring and evaluation againstnational and local performance indicators are theresponsibility of chief officers.

• Reductions in crime, anti-social behaviour anddisorder as well as improvement in publicsatisfaction and detections are the responsibilityof chief officers.

• Chief officers should ensure that their forces areable to deal effectively and efficiently withnational and cross-border crime, includingcounter-terrorism.

• Chief officers are responsible for ensuring thattheir force is working in partnership with thecommunities it serves and communicateseffectively with local citizens. This includes theprovision of information on local policing issuesand openness to local people’s views.

• Partnership working, both across the criminaljustice service and with other local agencies, isthe responsibility of chief officers.

Appendix VI: The Tripartite Relationship



Police Authorities• Police authorities are responsible for ensuring

that an effective and efficient police service is inplace in their area.

• The police authority selects the chief officer forthe force area. They also have a minority role inrecruitment and selection of the deputy chief andthe rest of the force’s chief officer team (ACCsetc.)

• Police authorities set the personal performanceobjectives and conduct the performance appraisalof the chief officer.

• Police authorities decide the locally raised preceptfor policing (via the council tax) and allocate thebudget to chief officers.

• Police authorities should hold the chief officer toaccount for how the key priorities in the NationalPolicing Plan are addressed in their force area andwhat arrangements are in place for identifyinglocal priorities.

• Police authorities should also hold the chiefofficer to account for regular engagement andpublication of information on force performance.

• Police authorities ensure that performancemanagement arrangements are in place that aretransparent and capable of interrogation. Theyshould know whether their chief is reducingcrime, anti-social behaviour and disorder andmaking the best use of the resources available.

• Police authorities are responsible for ensuringthat public accountability arrangements are inplace at Basic Command Unit and neighbourhoodlevel that enable local people to have a say in howthey are policed and identify local prioritieswithin the national framework.

Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs):ASBOs protect the public from behaviour thatcauses or is likely to cause harassment, alarm ordistress. An order contains certain conditionsprohibiting the offender from specific anti-socialacts or entering defined areas and is effective fora minimum of two years.

Assets Recovery Agency (ARA): The Agencywas established under the Proceeds of Crime Act2002 to co-ordinate activity across the UK inrecovering unlawfully obtained assets from thosewith no right to hold them. The agency becameoperational in February 2003.

Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO):ACPO exists to promote leadership excellence bythe chief officers of the police service, to assistin setting the policing agenda by providingprofessional opinion on key issues identified tothe Government, appropriate organisations andindividuals and to be the corporate voice ofthe service.

Association of Police Authorities (APA):The APA was set up in 1997 to represent policeauthorities in England, Wales and Northern Irelandnationally and to strengthen and support the roleof police authorities locally. The APA representspolice authorities in consultation on police mattersand supports police authorities in their work byproviding training, publications and research.

Basic Command Unit (BCU): BCUs are themain operating unit of police forces. Typically, aforce will divide its territorial area into betweenthree to ten BCUs (in the Metropolitan Policethey are called “boroughs” and there are thirty-two) covering areas such as a town or district.They are usually commanded by a superintendentor chief superintendent and consist of severalhundred police officers and staff. The officer in

charge of a BCU will be tasked by his or her chiefconstable with policing that locality and day today decisions will be made as close tocommunities as possible.

British Association of Women Police(BAWP): BAWP was formed in order to fill a gapwithin the police service, with its main objectivesto enhance the role and understanding of thespecific needs of the women who are employedtherein.

CENTREX: The Central Police Training andDevelopment Authority known as Centex,defines, develops and promotes excellence.It does so by providing a centre of policingexcellence and support, and by creating andimplementing the means to develop competencethrough policing careers.

Commission for Racial Equality (CRE): TheCRE is a publicly funded, non-governmental bodyset up under the Race Relations Act 1976 to tackleracial discrimination and promote racial equality.It works in both the public and private sectors toencourage fair treatment and to promote equalopportunities for everyone, regardless of theirrace, colour, nationality, or ethnic origin.

Community support officer (CSO): CSOs arepolice authority employed staff who can performa high visibility, patrolling role. They complementthe work of police officers by focusingpredominantly on lower level crime, disorder andanti-social behaviour, providing reassurance tothe communities they serve.

Connexions: Connexions is for 13-19 year olds,living in England, who want advice on getting onto where they want to be in life. The service ismanaged locally by Connexions Partnerships, ofwhich there are 47 throughout the country, whichbring together all the key youth support services.

Appendix VII: Glossary of Terms



Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership(CDRP): The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (asamended by the Police Reform Act 2002) sets outthe framework for CDRPs, in which ‘responsibleauthorities’ are required to work together inpartnership to tackle crime, disorder and themisuse of drugs. The responsible authoritiesconsist of all the local authorities in a CDRP area,the police, police authority, fire authority andPrimary Care Trust.

Drug Action Team (DAT): DATs are localpartnerships charged with responsibility fordelivering the National Drug Strategy at a locallevel, with representatives from the localauthority (education, social services, housing)health, probation, the prison service and thevoluntary sector. The English DATs are alignedwith local authority boundaries, and have, inmany areas, integrated their working practiceswith the local CDRP.

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN): Fixed penaltynotices are issued where there is reason tobelieve that an individual has committed acriminal offence for which a FPN is available – a“penalty offence”. The majority of tickets areissued for motoring offences, but a range of anti-social and nuisance offences have recently beenintroduced, for which penalty notices for disorder(PNDs) may be issued. The amount of the penaltyvaries considerably, up to a maximum of £200.Notices may be issued by a number of authorisedindividuals, including police officers, communitysupport officers and local authority officers.

Gay Police Association: The Gay PoliceAssociation works towards equal opportunitiesfor lesbian and gay police service employees,offering advice and support to lesbian and gaypolice service employees and promoting betterrelations between the police service and thelesbian and gay community.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary(HMIC): HMIC is an independent inspectorateestablished over a century ago. It is responsiblefor promoting the efficiency and effectiveness ofpolicing in England, Wales and Northern Irelandthrough inspection of police organisations andfunctions to ensure agreed standards areachieved and maintained, good practice is spreadand performance is improved. It also providesprofessional advice and support to the tripartitepartners (Home Secretary, police authorities andforces) and plays an important role in thedevelopment of future leaders.

High Potential Development Scheme (HPD):The High Potential Development Scheme is acompetency based, structured career frameworkwhich can lead to the most senior positions in thepolice service. It aims to turn potential intoperformance, whether as a highly effective middlemanager in command and leadership roles, orbeyond at the strategic leadership level of thepolice service.

Independent Police Complaints Commission(IPCC): Established under the Police Reform Act2002 and operational since April 2004, the IPCCreplaced the Police Complaints Authority anddeals with serious complaints against the police.

Local Authority Overview and ScrutinyCommittees: These committees wereestablished in the Local Government Act 2000.Consisting of councillors who are not members ofthe cabinet or ‘executive’, scrutiny committeesare responsible for developing and reviewingcouncil policy; holding the executive to accountfor their actions and decisions; assisting with bestvalue reviews; and external scrutiny – scrutinisingthe work and impact of other agencies on thelocal community. In addition to these coreresponsibilities, the Act empowers scrutiny

committees to make reports andrecommendations on any matter affecting thelocal area or its inhabitants.

Local Strategic Partnership (LSP): LSPs arelocal authority-wide, non-statutory partnershipsthat work together to identify common objectivesfor the local community. They includerepresentatives from the public, private, business,voluntary and community sectors. LSPs areobligatory in 88 designated neighbourhoodrenewal areas but have also been formed in manyother areas.

Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJB): The 42Local Criminal Justice Boards were set up in April2003 to manage the Criminal Justice System at alocal level. They comprise the chief officers of keycriminal justice agencies in each area and reportto the National Criminal Justice Board. Theyensure a joined up approach to reducing crime,bringing more offenders to justice and improvingpublic confidence in the Criminal Justice System.

Local Government Association (LGA): TheLGA exists to promote better local government,working with and for member authorities torealise a shared vision of local government thatenables local people to shape a distinctive andbetter future for their locality and itscommunities. The LGA aims to put local councilsat the heart of the drive to improve publicservices and to work with government to ensurethat the policy, legislative and financial context inwhich they operate, supports that objective.

National Black Police Association (NBPA):This is an umbrella organisation representing theviews of 38 Black Police Associations (BPAs) in theUK. The NBPA aims to promote good racerelations and equality of opportunity within thepolice services and the wider community.

National Centre for Policing Excellence(NCPE): The National Centre for PolicingExcellence, which forms part of the Central PoliceTraining and Development Authority (Centrex),was launched on 8 April 2002. It is tasked withdeveloping and disseminating best practice.

National Crime Squad (NCS): The NationalCrime Squad targets criminal organisationscommitting serious and organised crime whichtranscends national and international boundaries,typically drug trafficking, money laundering,counterfeit currency, kidnap and extortion. WhileNCIS gathers intelligence on these issues, NCSdeals with the investigation of such crimes.

National Criminal Intelligence Service(NCIS): NCIS provides actionable intelligence tolaw enforcement agencies at home and abroad inorder to combat and prevent serious andorganised crime that impacts on the UK.

National Intelligence Model (NIM): NIM is amodel for policing that ensures that informationis fully researched, developed and analysed toprovide intelligence that senior managers can useto provide strategic direction, make tacticalresourcing decisions about operational policingand manage risk. NIM is not just about crime andnot just about intelligence – it is a model that canbe used for most areas of policing. It offers, forthe first time, the realisable goal of integratedintelligence in which all forces and lawenforcement agencies play a part in a systembigger than themselves.

National Policing Plan: The national strategicframework for policing in England and Wales isset out in the National Policing Plan, which theGovernment is required to publish annually. ThePlan sets out minimum standards against whichpolicing should be delivered locally.



Office of Public Service Reform: Tostrengthen the Government’s ability to improvepublic services, the Prime Minister established theOffice of Public Service Reform in 2001. Basedin the Cabinet Office, OPSR is responsible forpushing forward the reform of public servicesin accordance with the Prime Minister’s fourprinciples of reform, in order to improvecustomers’ experiences of those services.

Police Advisory Board (PAB): The PoliceAdvisory Board advises the Home Secretary ongeneral questions affecting the police in Englandand Wales.

Police Information Technology Organisation(PITO): Working closely with its partners,PITO provides information technology andcommunication systems to the police service andcriminal justice organisations in the UK. It alsohas a role in getting best value for the policeservice on the goods and services they buy. Thisis done through setting up collectiveprocurement arrangements. PITO is a Non-Departmental Public Body funded by the grant-in-aid and charges for the services it provides.

Police Licensing and Accreditation Board(PLAB): The PLAB is a sub-group of the PoliceTraining and Development Board established tosecure appropriate accreditation for all policingskills and to ensure that the learning programmesused to develop such skills are of good quality.

Police Negotiating Board (PNB): PNB was setup to negotiate the hours of duty; leave; pay andallowances; the issue, use and return of policeclothing, personal equipment and accoutrements;and pensions of United Kingdom police officers,and to make recommendations to the HomeSecretary, Secretary of State for Northern Irelandand Scottish Ministers on these matters.

Police Performance Monitors: These areinterim, annual publications detailingperformance of the 43 Home Office police forcesof England and Wales across a set of performanceindicators in use while the Policing PerformanceAssessment Framework is being prepared.

Police staff: Police staff are non swornemployees within the police service who carryout many functions which enable police officersto patrol, tackle crime and disorder and performall the other tasks that are expected of them.

Police Staff Council (PSC): The PSC is avoluntary negotiation body (unlike the PoliceNegotiating Board) which negotiates for 50,000police staff in England and Wales (excluding theMetropolitan Police). The national agreements ofthe PSC are only binding if police authorities andchief constables agree to incorporate them withinthe contracts of employment of their employees.

Police Standards Unit (PSU): The PoliceStandards Unit, within the Home Office, was setup in June 2001 to help deliver the Government’scommitment to raise standards and improveoperational performance of the police in orderto maintain and enhance public satisfaction withpolicing in their areas. It does this through, forexample, performance monitoring and targetedsupport for police forces and Basic CommandUnits.

Police Training and Development Board(PTDB): The Police Training and DevelopmentBoard (PTDB) was established in May 2002 asthe key strategic body with national responsibilityfor bringing about improvements in policetraining and development. Replacing the PoliceTraining Council, the PTDB is charged by theHome Secretary to oversee the delivery of theGovernment’s strategy to reform the policeservice in relation to training and development.

Policing Performance AssessmentFramework (PPAF): PPAF is intended to be aneffective and fair way of measuring, comparingand assessing strategic performance in policingacross the full range of policing responsibilities.

Primary Care Trusts (PCT): PCTs control localhealth care, while 28 new strategic HealthAuthorities monitor performance and standards.There are 302 PCTs covering all parts of England,which receive budgets directly from theDepartment of Health.

Professionalising the Investigative Process(PIP): Professionalising the Investigative Processaims to bring policing into the 21st century byexamining existing investigation procedures anddeveloping ways to make the process moreprofessional, ethical and effective for both officersand police staff involved in investigations.

Skills for Justice: Skills for Justice is the sectorskills council for the justice sector. It is uniquelyplaced to bring together the component partswithin the justice sector to form a coherentwhole, to create better networking of informationand provide a single focus on skills issues for thejustice sector.

Special constables: special constables aremembers of the public who volunteer four ormore hours a week to help their local police forceand represent a partnership of the police andcommunity working together. They are differentfrom other volunteer/community groups in thatthey are trained officers with full police powers.

Stephen Lawrence Steering Group: Thissteering group oversees implementation of theStephen Lawrence Inquiry’s recommendations,ensuring that the Executive, the Crown Office andthe police service comply with theserecommendations.

Sure Start: Sure Start is the Government’sprogramme to deliver the best start in life forevery child by bringing together early education,childcare, health and family support.

Wardens: Unlike community support officers,neighbourhood wardens do not have any policepowers. Rather, they are the eyes and ears of thecommunity, looking to improve the quality of lifeof an area and help it along the path toregeneration. As well as providing a link betweenlocal residents and key agencies such as the localauthority and the police, wardens can also helpwith efforts to promote community safety andtackle environmental problems such as litter,graffiti, dog fouling and housing.

Youth Offending Teams (YOTS): The YOTs arekey to the success of the Youth Justice System,assessing the needs of youth offenders andidentifying suitable programmes to address thoseneeds in order to prevent re-offending. Each YOTis managed by a YOT manager, and is made up ofrepresentatives from the police, ProbationService, social services, health, education, drugsand alcohol misuse and housing officers.



Appendix VIII: How to comment

If you wish to provide us with your viewson this policy paper please either email us [email protected] orwrite to us at:

Building Communities, Beating CrimePolice Reform Unit6th Floor, Open Plan50 Queen Anne’s GateLondonSW1H 9AT

Comments on the issues raised in this paper arerequired by Tuesday 1st February 2005.

Regulatory Impact AssessmentA Regulatory Impact Assessment on this policypaper has been published and is available atwww.policereform.gov.uk.

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