The Case Against ACPO - A Critical Look At The Association Of Chief Police Officers
SHOULD THE FEDERATION HAVE PARITY WITH ACPO ON POLICE REFORMS?
T H U R S D A Y , 2 S E P T EMB E R 2 0 1 0 SHOULD THE FEDERATION HAVE PARITY WITH ACPO ON POLICE REFORMS?
THIS ARTICLE IS IMPORTANT TO EVERY RANK AND FILE POLICE OFFICER.
We have all witnessed the ACPO leaking of the "Secret Document" to the Home Secretary suggesting, among forty-nine recommendations, that the pay and conditions of the federated ranks be dramatically slashed. Police chiefs submitted the secret document to the Home Office without reference to the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) and without reference to the Federation and oblivious to the rights of rank and file officers.
We wrote about it first on Thin Blue Line and then in our article "The case against ACPO" Readers may recall it was ACPO that conveniently didn’t tell the Police Federation that they had done it. It was ACPO that met with the Police Federation and the Superintendents’ Association, pleading for unity to resist the Government’s plans for elected commissioners to replace police authorities – after they had submitted their plans.
It is time that the rank and file officer was given a voice and the recognition the role and the experience deserves. In any future reforms, the Federation should take its place alongside ACPO in any negotiations and consultations with the Government and elected officials over police reform. The front line should not be placed lower down the priority list, it should be up there, with equal ranking to ACPO with an equal voice, presented in unison, as one body. The current state of affairs, where ACPO have all the power, authority and political interference cannot be satisfactory.
Senior Officers and the rank and file must be reconciled as one service. It cannot not be acceptable that the Federation hear about important decisions from leaked documents or other sources. They must be a visible part of the process, not merely an afterthought This will take a monumental shift of culture from the Chief Officers, to accept that this is an essential element in achieving reforms that will last. If they fail to do this, this Government will spend its administration umpiring the contrary view of ACPO and the frontline.
On prior track record, at the very least ACPO have shown themselves to be self serving, manipulative, deceitful and disloyal to the rank and file whose trust they should be looking to rebuild. If the federation were granted parity with ACPO in any future negotiations, there
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