Too many police chiefs? - A review of police strength and costs in England & Wales 2010

SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS - Non Response Officers : Freedom Of Information Requests vs HMIC Returns

The tables on the previous two pages present a combination of data. The left hand five columns (excluding the force) ate the data extrapolated from out Freedom Of Information Requests of the forces about frontline response numbers. The right hand five columns relate to data drawn from HMIC released in March 2010.

The bottom line response % differs only by half a per cent between the two sets of data. The research suggested that from the responses given 42.5% of the officers in England & Wales are engaged in front line response duties i.e. responding to calls from the public. However, both sets of data include responses from forces that overstate the response numbers. As can be seen from the Key & Notes, forces commonly returned the numbers for officers classed as operational, which is a much wider group than the response teams. The most accurate allocation of response numbers is defined in S30 of the Home Office Guidelines Foot/Beat/Car response.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS & OBSERVATIONS

There is considerable evidence to support widespread front line police officer belief that police response numbers are dramatically and dangerously lower than the Home Office and Senior Police Officers would have us believe.

Police response numbers, the poor application of financial and human resource is one of many areas of policing that require urgent reform. The ability to respond to the needs of the public is of paramount importance in the quest to restore ailing confidence in the service as a whole. More importantly, whilst the need for reform in this vital area remains obstructed by bureaucratic nonsense and a misguided drive to manipulate statistics, the lives and safety of both public and police are placed at risk. There have been too many sad examples with fatal consequences, where lives could have saved or protected more effectively, had reforms been implemented sooner.

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