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Progress on the creation of a £50 million Home Office fund to roll out 10,000 mobile data devices to police officers next year
The Police Service must be just as good at tackling anti-social behaviour as it is at tackling terrorism if it is to meet the challenge of leading a world class police service, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today (29 November).
Speaking at the Association of Police Authorities conference in Warwickshire the Home Secretary set out her vision for policing and emphasised the importance of 'getting it right from the ground up' by tackling crime at a local level as well as on a national and international level.
The Home Secretary emphasised the importance of the police working in partnership across forces, as well as with local delivery partners and the private and third sectors, to meet the challenges of modern policing.
The Home Secretary also today announced the continuation of the £324 million Neighbourhood Policing Fund into 2008/2009 to ensure that the excellent work already delivered by neighbourhood policing is maintained and built upon. Seventy-five percent of the population is now covered by neighbourhood policing teams.
From next year a new performance framework, the 'Assessment of Policing and Community Safety', will for the first time start to measure the effectiveness of local community safety services together with the police and encourage and recognise partnership working.
To support collaborative working between forces the Home Secretary today announced extra funding for three more protective services demonstrator sites, in addition to the ten projects announced in July. These sites, in the East Midlands, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside, will involve all of the forces in those regions working together to improve the delivery of protective services in their area and to develop best practice for collaboration.
The Home Secretary has also this week written to Sir Ronnie Flanagan in response to his interim report on his independent Review of Policing. The Government has already made significant progress on a number of his recommendations in the areas of reducing bureaucracy and neighbourhood policing, including:
* the development of a Neighbourhood Management Action Plan, to be published at the end of this year;
* the creation of a £50 million Home Office fund to roll out 10,000 mobile data devices to police officers next year;
* new public service agreements focusing on tackling the most serious offences; and
* developing further the use of virtual courts.
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said:
"If we are to meet the challenges of modern policing and deliver a service that the public rightly expect then we need to deal first and foremost with the issues that the public are most concerned about.
"Neighbourhood policing is at the heart of this with neighbourhood policing teams engaging with local communities and providing a visible and reassuring presence. The policing family is also stronger and better able to serve the public since the introduction of Police Community Support Officers.
"I am committed to ensuring that the valuable work already delivered by Neighbourhood Policing is maintained and built upon and I am pleased to announce continuation of the Neighbourhood Policing Fund until 2008/9.
"I am committed to implementing the recommendations from Sir Ronnie Flanagan's interim report. We have already begun to make progress in the areas of reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and on neighbourhood policing and I look forward to his final report in the New Year."
