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Home Secretary puts fight against bureaucracy at the heart of her police reforms
A raft of measures outlined by the Home Secretary yesterday will save an estimated 2.5 million police hours – the equivalent of 1,200 police officer posts a year.
At a major speech at Church House in London yesterday, Theresa May told the audience of police officers: “These reforms are a watershed moment in policing, showing that we really mean business in busting bureaucracy and allowing police to police and not fill in forms.”
These reforms add up to a massive transfer of power from the government, to the people: “They will be in charge, and every police officer – from chief constables, to the officer on the street – will have to answer to them.
Regular meetings between the police and the public will make the police more accountable. “These meetings will give local people the chance to scrutinise the work of their local police. People will be able to raise their concerns: what are local officers doing about the drug dealing in the local park? What’s happening about the pub where all the trouble is? And the police will have to respond.”
And there is little doubt in the Home Secretary’s mind that the public want to get involved – the country’s first-ever nationwide street-level crime map is proof.
The success of the police.uk website has been measured by the number of hits it has received (410 million since January), said the Home Secretary, proof of the public’s appetite for information about policing and crime in their local area. “And it shows just how desperately keen people are to play their part in keeping their communities safe.”
“For a public service, in a democracy, that is exactly how it should be.”
The Home Secretary noted that dealing with a simple burglary can require 1,000 process steps and 70 forms to be completed as a case goes through the Criminal Justice System: “That can’t be right.”
The “watershed moment in policing” includes a number of HR-related reforms, such as a shorter PDR process. Another set of reforms relate to risk management: “We need to move away from the tick box, cover your back culture – where the response is rigidly prescribed according to the type of problem reported. And instead we need to adopt a more sensible way of managing risks to the public.”
An example of this would be – interestingly – through more efficient call-handling, often by staff rather than police officers.
“This would see more officers dispatched to the genuine priority incidents; allowing less urgent matters to be resolved by phone, or by an officer attending at a later time.”
A simplified crime recording process would be championed. “As a starting point, this means challenging forces to simplify their own practices, but I don’t want to stop there.
“At my request, the National Statistician is currently reviewing crime statistics. I do not want to pre-empt her report, and indeed she is discussing her emerging findings with experts today, but I specifically want to look at reducing the number of crime categories and merging some similar crime types.
“This would help officers when they come to fill out crime reports, saving them time and reducing the amount of data they have to collect for more minor crimes.”
It is estimated that this could save up to 95,000 hours of police officer time each year.
By March 2012, Sara Thornton, the Chief Constable Thames Valley, will – via ACPO –reduce guidance to fewer than 100 pages as opposed to the current 600: “This should lead to significant savings for officers as they will no longer have to read and learn all of this guidance.”
Next, a pilot will be introduced to further restore charging decisions to police officers. “We will pilot doubling the number of charges transferred to police officers, giving them responsibility for nearly 80% of charging decisions, including shoplifting cases.
“This will save even more officer time, stopping them from having to ring up the Crown Prosecution Service to make the decision for them, or having to bail the offender to come back at a later date.” It is estimated this could save up to an estimated 40,000 hours of police officer time.
Postal charging and requisitioning is also being looked at as a new, simpler and potentially quicker way of bringing a defendant to court for a prosecution, rather than calling the suspect back to the police station for charging. This could save up to another 40,000 police officer hours annually.
Form filling
The Home Secretary recognised that bureaucratic burden of existing processes too often stopped experts (eg in domestic abuse) from giving help to all of the victims of crime: “Too often officers have to spend time filling in forms which may not be necessary or double entering data that could and should have been captured just once.”
She said reducing bureaucracy wasn’t just about saving money, but about delivering a better service to vulnerable people.
“ACPO have initiated a review of police domestic abuse processes with other relevant organisations. We will work with them to ensure best practice is effectively shared and seized upon by forces. And we will of course be working with NGOs with expertise in this area.”
The proposals will be piloted in a number of police forces. If rolled out nationally, the Home Secretary says the improved benefits could be significant, by allowing more police time to be re-invested in those most at risk.
The Home Secretary also acknowledged the work of the HMIC and described Jan Berry’s suggestions in reducing bureaucracy as “excellent”. She added: “Chris Sims, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands, is now leading for ACPO on the reducing bureaucracy agenda and he is doing an excellent job.”
Theresa May drew out a number of examples of chief officers “already making sensible savings” to protect the frontline. “Avon and Somerset they are using outsourcing to make significant savings. Essex and Kent are sharing IT directors. Hampshire and Thames Valley Police are doing the same.”
She encouraged other chiefs to use their professional judgement in deploying their resources in the fight against crime, and not wait for the Home Office to tell them to do it.
The Home Secretary ended by talking about changing the prevailing culture. “When the first response of the previous government to a tragedy was to change the law, have an inquiry, write more guidance, second guess the officers involved – it’s no wonder that we ended up with a tick-box, compliance culture in policing.”
She concluded: “I want to see a police force trusted by the public, responsive to their needs; professional, respected and effective. I want officers out from behind their desks and back on the streets. I want to see police officers with the discretion to do what they think is right; free from the interference of Whitehall, free to do their job, free to fight crime.”
Today the Policing Minister Nick Herbert is addressing a joint Home Office/ACPO conference, alongside Chris Sims, discussing with police officers exactly how these changes will happen in all 43 forces.
UPDATE:
Nick Herbert has today told an audience of chief constables and policing figures that government is determined to work with them to reduce bureaucracy,
The policing minister's words followed a commitment by the government to go further and faster in getting rid of unneccessary form filling and processes that can get in the way of officers doing their job.
Criminal justice reform
The minister also promised that there would be significant announcements on reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure the best use is made of police offers' time.
'We need to maximise the use of sworn officers and make the most of their professional discretion,' he said.
