Police numbers at a record high?? REALLY??
Police numbers have hit a record high in England and Wales, according to the latest figures released by the Home Office.
The annual police service strength statistics (new window) show that the number of police officers has increased by 1,921 since March last year.
This is a rise of 1.4% and brings the total number of officers to 142,151.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that the figures are ‘encouraging,’ but said that the fight against crime is 'not just a numbers game.'
'What matters most is that the workforce delivers the best possible service to the public.
'Chief constables have more power than ever before to ensure they focus their resources on what matters to local people and what affects their communities.'
The figures also show that women represent 27% of rank and file officers.There are now 6,290 black and minority ethnic police officers, which is an increase of 497 in the last year.
Source : http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/
WHAT THE REPORT DOESN'T SAY . . . . . . .
- How many officers are actually ON THE STREET doing the real job at the sticky end?
- How many are tied up in desk jobs and not available for front line duties?
- Will the Home Office bureaucracy plan release any office staff for real policing?
- Will busy town centres remain under policed when cover is needed most?
- How many "On The Street" hours are actually achieved BY force area?
- Is that the majority of forces have now had their recruitment budgets FROZEN
To quote Alan Johnson:
'What matters most is that the workforce delivers the best possible service to the public. Chief constables have more power than ever before to ensure they focus their resources on what matters to local people and what affects their communities.'
If only the members of the public and the officers on the front line could be given some confidence that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
There are more officers tied up in committees, strategy planning and statistical fudgery than dealing with crime and related matters on the street. All because politicians and civil servants play too significant a role in policing this country.
Policing at a local level, with local accountability is essential if real improvement is to be witnessed.
The timing of this report, concurrent with the release of crime statistics announcing further reductions in crime do not give rise for confidence.
Reports from the frontline (and we will provide detail in future posts) suggest that the crime statistics are manufactured with political pressure.
Why should we then place any creedance on a report bragging about police strength being at an all time high, when the frontline feedback is that police manpower where it's needed, is woefully inadequate?
LET'S HAVE SOME TRANSPARENCY FOR ONCE MR JOHNSON!!
- Tell us about the admistrative detection rates that skew the crime figures in your favour . .
- Tell us about the holding back of crime reporting to reflect lower annual crime rates . . . .
- Tell us the real policing numbers of officers actually on the street, by man hours please . . .
- Tell us how many hours officers are tied to the nick dealing with paperwork . . . . .
- Tell us what difference 1921 new officers will make in the scheme of things . . . . . .
According to frontline sources, you already have enough officers. That isn't in question. It is how those officers are deployed and at what critical times, for crime prevention and detection... That is what the public and the overworked front liners want to know.
Go on tell us ! If you dare.
With Kind Regards
The Crime Analyst Team
Nice 1 Limited
Posts
3 comments:
The nine principles by Sir Robert Peel[1]
The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence
Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
Thanks for that, I wanted to post the Robert Peel priciples on here at some point, and your post is very timely.
Thanks again.
Steve
Police admit they are sometimes thick blue line . . . .
Police officers from across Britain have revealed their most embarrassing gaffes and pratfalls, proving that the thin blue line can, sometimes, be a little thick.
Among contributors to a discussion on a police website was a Lancashire officer who described how a suspect was ramming the cage inside a police van so violently that two colleagues went inside to restrain him, quickly followed by a third.
Unable to calm the headbutting prisoner, the fourth and last officer jumped in but accidentally let the cage door slam shut behind him, locking all four policemen inside with the raging suspect.
Another member of the web site Policespecials.com recalled being in the back seat of a police car when colleagues in front jumped out to break up a drunken brawl, leaving him stranded by child-locked doors.
"There's me stuck in the back seat of a police car on my own with 20 to 30 people watching me frantically trying to get out, while a suspect is taking a casual jog past me. To top it off he started waving at me," wrote the officer from Braintree in Essex.
Another officer described taking attending a witness' home to take a lengthy statement on a homicide. After some time the witness asked if he would like something to eat and the officer unthinkingly replied: "I could murder a cheese and pickle sandwich."
Similarly lacking in sensitivity was the Hampshire officer who called at a woman's home to break the news that her ex-husband had been murdered in London.
The PC wrote: "Her mother answered, saying her daughter was at work and was it bad news? Before I had chance to answer I dropped an 'Advice for the Bereaved' booklet at her feet, which she promptly picked up."
Another contributor recounted how two female sergeants in a patrol car were giggling about intimate details of their love lives until they were informed by controllers that their conversation had been broadcast over the police radio to every car in north London.
In the very opposite of "joined-up policing", one PC said that as a new officer working on a police station front desk he told a woman who arrived asking for a CID officer to come back later.
"She smiled at me in a weird sarcastic way and left the building. It turned out CID have been looking for her for a very long time and she has come to turn herself in. I now try to avoid CID so I don't get stick," he said.
The website also numerous examples of police helmet-related gaffes, such as wearing the headgear back to front, knocking it off on a low beam or forgetting to remove it before getting into a panda car, leading to hilarious results.
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