COMMENT
One week later – on the same stretch of road – I was stopped by another offi cer. Sadly this exchange was the polar opposite and far from acceptable.
I told the offi cer to note that I had children in the car yet he persisted to be aggressive and overbearing. After he had concluded his business he walked away, at which point I exited my car and spoke to him in private about his attitude and the impact it could have on children. He was still as aggressive. Then there came a point in the conversation when he realised that I actually knew what I was talking about and he then asked me the ‘killer question’: “What job do you do?” I simply looked at him and smiled and he instantly calmed down. Classic case of ‘oh no, this guy might know someone or be someone.’
When I think of the horrible police offi cer, I fi nd reform very tempting; cut his pension, make him work the beat, sack him if he is overweight and performance manage him out of the service. However, I would defend the good police and those like him. Sadly my children will remember the bad offi cer for much longer than the good.
The challenge
The real challenge is to detach ourselves slightly from our personal experiences and ask the crucial question of what society needs from its police force. After all, no amount of reform or lack of reform will weed out the bad police offi cer.
Reform must be about making the police better at what they do whilst ensuring that levels of controls and accountability are built in. Our research with the University of Loughborough found that there was a lack of accountability and that police authorities continually failed to effectively hold the police to account. Even more damning, was the revelation that 99.9% of the population knew very little about their police authority and even police offi cers were not familiar with them.
public sector executive Sep/Oct 12 | 21
It would, however, be a mistake to see elected police and crime commissioners as a silver- bullet solution. Transferring a collective police authority power to a single elected individual could see power concentrated in too few hands and destroy the delicate tripartite relationship and, potentially, overtly politicise policing.
While these fears are genuine there is no evidence that policing will become any more political than it already is and has been. The election of police commissioners will undoubtedly herald a more responsive form of policing and possible accountability because the citizen will be empowered to directly hold an individual to account, challenging the dislocation and disconnect between local people.
No longer will there be faceless bureaucrats and self-serving civil servants serving their own purpose. But the danger is that we will have self-serving politicians serving their own political interests, which they will incidentally tell us are also the people’s interests because they have been elected. Sadly – and politicians know this – elections will not bring about the type of accountability that we so earnestly yearn for. So when we hear that this police reform will be better than the old system, I agree, it will be; but what are its shortcomings and what will it not do? Transparency on this is essential if the home secretary intends to gain more support.
i More stories like this at:
www.publicsectorexecutive.com/ crime-reduction
The home secretary has recently shown her disappointment
that
applications for the new PCCs are primarily party representatives. She is surely the last person in the UK to realise this was inevitable. Elections attract the political class, not your business or
Home Secretary Theresa May
academic experts. If the Government had consulted and listened they would have realised this.
(And oh, by the way, overweight police should indeed be sacked: three strikes and they’re out!)
Dr Floyd Millen is director of public affairs think tank yesMinister and the former head of policy for the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion. He has also been a programme director of ‘Building Futures’, a Department for Work and Pensions funded initiative with BTEG and Talent that brought the voluntary sector and the private sector together to create jobs. He previously worked for the Metropolitan Police Authority as an adviser on the implementation of the new Home Offi ce Guidelines on ‘Custody Visiting’.
Dr Floyd Millen
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
opinion@publicsectorexecutive.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76