Paying the Bill: Policing After the Recession

Martin Innes

Argument

• Economic and political drivers for reform. Policing will have to become: smaller; smarter; and sharper. Not ‘more with less’, just ‘less’.

• Need to reverse trend of police specialisation and move more to co-productive working.

• To deliver this need to agree what policing is for and shift towards public facing outcome metrics - what harms social order, communities and neighbourhoods?

Structure

• The wider political and economic context;

• Key themes for the government reform agenda in ‘Policing in the 21st Century’ – accountability; national agencies; big society.

• Trends in policing (specialisation and taskforces);

• What is policing for and the uses of ‘social harm’.

Citizen Priorities

Source: Ipsos-Mori

Trends Crime & Perceived ASB

Trends in Police Staff

Source: HMIC (2010) Valuing The Police

Forces for Change

• Economics – reduce public spending

• Ideology – revision of state / civil society

Policing in the 21st Century

3 ‘big ticket’ reform items:

• Police and Crime Commissioners – altering policing accountabilities; • National Crime Agency – solidifies an ongoing movement;

• Community mobilisation and the ‘big society’.

Policing Accountabilities

• Using the police to support democracy; • Existing ‘upwards’, ‘downwards’ and ‘sideways’ accountabilities;

• Clarifying reach and depth of Police ad Crime Commissioners.

Leveraging the ‘Big Society’

Big Society themes - • Community empowerment• Social action• Public service reformSource: Halpern (2010) Prospect Magazine September

• Halpern (2009): information on public-facing services & their performance is a ‘public good’.• ‘Nudgers’ (Thaler & Sunstein) vs ‘networkers’ (Christakis & Fowler).

Policing as an Agent for Community Mobilisation

NRPP (2003-5) ‘horizontal’ vs ‘vertical’ co-production:

• 4 sites increases in residents trust in each other;• 14 point increase in cohesion in Lancashire site;• 4 sites improved perceptions of collective efficacy.

• Similar findings are recorded in Chicago (Skogan, 2007 and Carr, 2006)

• Doing policing with rather than to people, improves key outcomes, but requires significant skills.

Trends in Policing

• ‘Full spectrum policing’ – increase at national and neighbourhood levels in particular;

• The move to policing by taskforces, initiatives and operations; • Specialisation and the decline of the generalist PC.

Police Spend & Resources 1998/09 – 2008/09

Source: Brain (2010) Cityforum

Follow the Money

% Change Staffing 05/06 – 08/09Source: HMIC (2010) Valuing the Police

So What?

• Police self-defined a ‘crime control’ mission (USA);

• British policing tradition more complex - crime management / order management / security management;

• Prevent and NP findings – knowing what people perceiving and experiencing critical;

• Cultural resistance;

• Develop public-facing outcomes around the social harm of crime, disorder and policing.

Community Impacts of Homicide

“Yeah obviously I discussed it with family and the next door neighbour and people and they reassured me it wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed.” (Ast 235)

ASB & Neighbourhood Security

Social Harm Footprints

Conclusions

• Difficult choices – what and where is the public value of policing?;

• Develop public-facing outcomes;

• The policing narrative.

ANY QUESTIONS ?

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