Where Are All The Police? – An Analysis of Police Resources
quality control introduced by Statutory Charging provides only part of the explanation for the increased demand on officer time made by the CPS.
We found evidence that the additional amount of time 24/7 response officers now have to spend working under the direction of the CPS has not been taken into account by their forces and the resource implications have been ignored; that CPS solicitors are not accountable for the amount of police time they use and do not have to consider the cost of their directions; that there are insufficient CPS solicitors available to provide the service officers require at the times and locations they require it; that ‘CPS Direct’ often fails to provide a satisfactory standard of service out of hours, wastes officer time on additional administrative tasks and too often a solicitor unfamiliar with local issues provides advice that is inappropriate; and that the conflict between some CPS and police performance indicators increases the pressure on 24/7 response officers, aggravating further the problems arising through the under- resourcing of the 24/7 response function.
Officers strongly believe the CPS should be made accountable for the way they use police time, especially on cases referred to them which do not result in a charge. At the present time the number of such cases is not reported and consequently the volume of police officer work associated with the process leading to ‘No Further Action’ decisions is not evident and we advocate further investigation into the way the pre- charge system is currently operating and its effect on the workload of 24/7 officers.
Incident follow-up and post-attendance enquiries: Bureaucracy Despite a Home Office commitment to reducing bureaucracy, the officers we spoke to reported that bureaucracy remained a large burden for them. The evidence suggests that the drive to reduce bureaucracy is being offset by other parts of the police Reform programme such as the new standards for crime recording and incident reporting. Also greater accountability and the drive for performance have led response officers to make an even greater investment in paperwork and to spend a greater proportion of their time on it.
Incident follow-up and post-attendance enquiries: Custody suites Our respondents reported that arresting someone still kept officers off the streets for between two and four hours on average due to waiting times in, and travelling time to, custody facilities.
Incident follow-up and post-attendance enquiries: Targets Officers reported that they were regularly given targets by management and that their individual performance would be assessed by their supervisors on those targets. Reactions to these targets were mixed, with some officers feeling more pressured by them than others, but it was apparent that probationer constables were generally more likely to be concerned about achieving performance targets
Consequences – Major Characteristics Our research reveals that for the reasons above 24/7 officers are finding it increasingly difficult to perform all the core functions expected of a 24/7 response officer in the manner laid down by force and national requirements. Based on our findings, these are what we believe to be the fundamental characteristics of 24/7 policing today:
• 24/7 response reliefs are considerably under-staffed with sworn officers and permanently have no operational resilience.
• The strength of 24/7 response reliefs too frequently falls below minimum staffing levels, leaving response officers in potential danger.
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