The Telegraph has been a fierce advocate for police reform and an enthusiastic supporter of the coalition Government’s ambitious agenda.
An article by Michael Nicholson published on 2 April seemed to me, as a serving chief constable, to be nothing more than a counsel of despair.
Indeed, it prompted me to offer some of my own thoughts on the issues raised.
Taxed by financial imperatives
Police service leaders are currently taxed by financial imperatives, the potential recessionary rise in demand and the need to continually question and improve our service.
Surrey Police, which I have the privilege to lead, is the only force growing its number of police constables despite the cuts (albeit not as great as many other forces who start from widely differing financial positions).
From a baseline of 1,345 we have set out to grow our number of constables by 200. The force is not in debt, nor is it withdrawing local policing teams.
We are pursuing four avenues of reform: cutting management by nearly half and empowering the front line, cutting support services by over 40%, collaborating with neighbours and sharing buildings.
This last point is contentious, but another fact may assist. Surrey County Council has led an audit of publicly-owned buildings in Surrey (a county with a population of 1.1 million). The results are staggering. There are over 6,000 public buildings because, from central Government to local agencies, we have not been joined up.
Patrolling officers and PCSOs before buildings
In Surrey, we’re putting local policing teams in buildings alongside others, such as community centres and council offices. Shared rent makes them more viable, while we sell on and, more importantly, stop maintaining ramshackle estates built between 1870 and 1970 that the public rarely visits.
Unsurprisingly, consultation shows the public want patrolling officers and PCSOs above buildings!
Is it all working, though? Only a year in, the signs are encouraging. Crime is down and I can produce lots of other statistics, but I know the scepticism they provoke.
The public’s view, and our independent research, tells us that when people call us for help regarding crime or anti-social behaviour, not only do a majority start with a positive view of Surrey’s policing but four times as many end with their opinion improved rather than disappointed.
An increased burden across 25 years
Much has been written on police bureaucracy and rightly so, but often for the wrong reasons.
Some bureaucracy is essential: the courts want reliable records with i’s dotted and t’s crossed, but much is not and, more importantly, disables the discretion of front line.
On Google, quotes from every Home Secretary since Michael Howard express a determination to ‘cut red tape’. Though the rhetoric has always been the same, successive Governments have increased the burden over 25 years.
For example, the rules currently require that even a push has to be recorded as an assault with no room for discretion, and the imperative that detection rates should rise leads even a minor altercation between teenagers to result in a petty prosecution or caution.
Those chiefs who refuse to play that game – and I’m one of them – are regularly criticised for poor detection rates. The reality is that I encourage front line officers to use their common sense and to find pragmatic solutions: the modern equivalent of a clip round the ear!
The Home Office is well practised at persuading successive ministers to hang on the seductive levers of targets and rules ‘just in case’ in the naive belief national stricture can prevent local errors. I hope current Home Secretary Theresa May is more successful with the scissors than her predecessors.
Confronting the visibility issue
The recent article in The Telegraph also expressed dismay that many front line officers are not visible. That’s because the ‘front line’ includes officers involved with surveillance against organised crime, forensics experts, detectives investigating everything from murder to burglary, officers investigating child abuse and domestic violence and trying to support vulnerable victims through the court system and staff who answer 999s calls.
There was also confusion as to why fewer than a fifth of those uniformed officers were visible at any moment. Just as rolling news has a dozen presenters come and go over a week on the BBC or Sky, policing needs many officers to fill one seat.
As officers work 40 hours per week, and a week is 168 hours, then to provide a 24/7/365 service inevitably takes more than four officers.
So I learn two things. The fact that policing has to do much unseen work to protect the public from 21st Century threats still needs better explanation, while public sector reform remains a leadership challenge to wean people away from symbols such as buildings or comfort blankets like bureaucracy.
To deliver a high quality service in the face of these cuts to policing is a challenge that should not be underestimated.
Fr from taking heed of those counselling despair, in Surrey we’re busy getting on with it.
Mark Rowley is chief constable of Surrey Police
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