| Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary 1998/99 | ||||
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Chapter 3 CHANGING THE BEAT 3.1 The Police Service itself has been in the vanguard of change for many years. It is an institution unrecognisable even to that of ten years ago. It is managerially much leaner, beginning after a cautious start to optimise the use of technology and altogether carries out its historical task in more professional ways. There are stabilising constants amongst the breathless dynamic of a changing world of policing. The broad mission remains the prevention of crime and disorder followed respectively by detection and resolution. On the premise that individual or collective perception is individual or collective reality, the mission embraces the assault on the fear of crime and the establishment of a comforting sense of safety. Successive reductions in the number of burglaries of peoples' homes in each of the past six years is an outstanding achievement. An achievement that few would have been brave enough to predict in the early 1990s when experience was of almost exponential growth decade by decade. 3.2 This seminal success is proof of what can be achieved. It is not the time to relax: those breathless from the pace of change must find additional lung capacity. It is the time to consolidate success and learn from its experience to address the broader agenda of reducing crime overall. Success against this agenda will only be achieved if the Service continues to modernise and capitalise on the opportunities for change. 3.3 The Service can take justifiable pride in many of its leaders who are all the products of the Service itself. The drive must be to raise the overall standard to that of the best, whilst at the same time taking a hard look at how the Service selects and develops its leaders. The impact of improvement will be cumulative, as an organisation marked out by the quality of its leadership and professionalism will attract better quality recruits in a highly competitive market place. 3.4 HMIC is working enthusiastically with ACPO, the APA and others, under Home Office chairmanship, to find improved methods of senior officer selection and development. The intention is to determine the means of identifying and selecting the potentially most able, ensuring that the potential is realised. The working group will also revisit the roles of the various parties in selection processes. In essence, the challenge is to position the right leader, in the right place, at the right time.
FIGURE 6 Percentage of Ethnic Minority Officers (England and Wales) 3.5 Such leaders will develop and secure ownership of a shared vision and the means to achieve it within their increasingly diverse organisations. That vision will be based upon knowledge of the external environment and the ability to anticipate the changing needs and aspirations of an increasingly sophisticated public. Change will be viewed as a potential friend to be cultivated not a stranger to be rejected. Leaders will need to be equally competent as the architects and the constructors of partnerships and at ease in responding to diverse accountabilities. 3.6 The management of increasing complexity should not cloud the focus of what officers and support staff need to do. Their purposes and roles should be marked by their clarity whilst leadership absorbs the shading of complexity. The dexterity of intellect and abundance of energy required will also be both necessary and sufficient to maintain the leadership focus on outcomes, the principal intended outcome being the reduction of crime. 3.7 HMIC has functional responsibility for the Accelerated Promotion Scheme for Graduates (APSG). A great deal of effort and commitment by a small staff, whilst securing credibility in most universities, is failing to deliver the goods. Only 16 places were offered last year with a mere dozen the year before. It is a particular concern that no visible ethnic minority applicant has secured a place since 1995. Our own thematic revisit to Winning the Race recommended that the scheme 'needs to be revisited and fresh ideas sought.' The APSG is therefore being subjected to a fundamental review, including thorough consultation with stakeholders, of the strategic objectives of the scheme, its future and recommending improvements. The findings will be reported to the Home Office chaired committee on chief officer selection and development later in the year. 3.8 The impact of the Macpherson Report undoubtedly shook the Service. The reverberations provide an imperative for change not just an opportunity. The Service should not have been surprised as the HMIC thematic Winning the Race highlighted many of the deficiencies in procedure and practice captured by Macpherson. I was disappointed therefore that our follow up study Winning the Race Revisited demonstrated that, in general, the Service had not reacted with the necessary alacrity to the recommendations of the original thematic. I am pleased that there is now evidence of an energetic response both within ACPO, within staff associations and within forces. This issue is of such fundamental and overriding importance that each of the 43 forces in England and Wales will be subject of a further inspection of their progress early in 2000. 3.9 Unless the Service places community and race relations at the core of its thinking, its policy and its actions, and recognises the particular and special needs of visible ethnic minorities there is a real risk of losing the mandate to police by consent a substantial, and increasing, proportion of the population. An important constituent of the combination of measures necessary to secure progress is a greater representation of officers from visible ethnic minorities at all levels of the Service. In April chief constables and leaders of police authorities accepted the challenge of the Home Secretary's targets of due proportion at all levels of the Service within 10 years with interval milestones to be achieved. I see the acceptance of this considerable challenge as tangible evidence that the Service, at last, means business in this vital area. HMIC will monitor progress towards the targets and identify good practice. 3.10 As was recommended in both Winning the Race Revisited and in evidence of HMIC to the Home Affairs Committee review of police training, the moves to standardise criteria for recruits and to explore regionalised recruitment are rational in themselves and will benefit the drive for recruits from visible ethnic minorities. To some the challenge of the targets seem daunting but there is a source of comfort, even inspiration, in the knowledge that this is not the first time it has responded to remedy a deficit in its make-up. Thirty years ago the Police Service nationally could look forward to recruiting one graduate each year. That abysmal figure had been the repetitive recruitment pattern for some twenty years. Progressively, with effort and imagination, the Service has improved its position to one where each year 800 graduates are recruited, representing 13% of the annual intake. The Service has proved that it can create and sustain a positive action programme targeted at a minority group, and reap the subsequent reward. 3.11 The generic skills of the police officer will never be replaced or overtaken. The ability to talk to people, to interview suspects and witnesses, to spot the unusual and observe a behaviour pattern, come together to feed the invaluable mosaic of 'intelligence'. The confidence and experience to act decisively and use discretion judiciously will continue to be the backbone of our policing style. The computer will never subsume these essential strengths. It is necessary, however, and the progress towards crime reduction reinforces that necessity, to gain maximum benefit from developing technology. Within a whole range of technological opportunities there are a handful of key areas. Public Safety Radio Communications Project (PSRCP) 3.12 I am pleased that the Home Secretary announced, at the Labour Party Conference in September, that an additional £50 million will be provided to bring police communication into the digital era. 3.13 PSRCP is an important initiative. It will provide secure voice and data axchange and will allow frontline officers to access multiple, and vital, databases. Local control rooms will be able to pass graphic information to their colleagues. Officer safety will be enhanced and officer deployment will become more effective. 3.14 This will be welcomed by forces nationally. 3.15 The development of DNA techniques has provided the excitement that our policy predecessors must have experienced with the evolution of fingerprints as a source of unequivocal identification. The national DNA database has found a suspect for nearly half the crimes on the system. I am pleased that the Prime Minister has announced additional funds to carry out a much needed expansion of this database. The return on such expansion should prove substantial. In addition to providing primary evidence in the detection of crime, the greater number of criminals convicted should impact both individual and general deterrence. 3.16 Active offenders commit on average 7 offences per year. Those offenders caught, convicted and given custodial sentences are removed from the streets and subsequent offences are therefore prevented. There must then come a point where other criminals or potential criminals, assessing the possibilities and probabilities, are deterred by others being caught with greater frequency. The effect of the expansion of the database on crime reduction will be significant. 3.17 Despite the actual and potential rewards stemming from DNA technology, fingerprint technology remains a vital tool in crime detection and suspect identification. Indeed there is even more to be gained. The National Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) is designed to provide access from local fingerprint bureaux to national fingerprint databases capable of comparing over one million fingerprints every second. The operational benefits include quicker processing of those arrested through the criminal justice system, increased detection of criminals and speedier identification. National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS) 3.18 NSPIS is a concept which will provide standard computer applications for a Service which spends £150m each year on IT support. Indeed the concept is already delivering some applications. With applications as diverse as command and control, major crime investigation and case preparation, the potential benefits from standardisation and compatibility between forces, extending to other elements of the criminal justice system, are exciting. Forces are looking forward to the roll out of HOLMES II, the computer support for major crime investigation, which has been warmly commended by the pilot site forces. It is appreciated that forces are at different stages of investment in the development and unexpired useful life of their own IT support in different aspects of police business. Whilst there is the encouragement of economies of scale to reduce the price of a particular application, recent investments by a force, for example, on a command and control system cannot be discounted. 3.19 The best leaders, leading the right people, optimising the benefits of the latest technology to enhance service delivery are all at a cost. Each part of the infrastructure of social support can construct an articulate case for more resources. There is no gain without another's pain as public sector resources are not limitless. The HMIC study What Price Policing demonstrated that, whilst there were areas for improvement through collaborative procurement and ownership at chief officer level of value for money, the Service was a foe to itself. Having secured significant improvements in productivity, it was unable or thought it unnecessary to prove them. 3.20 The current year's improvements in efficiency will be subject to proof. The Home Secretary has set efficiency targets of 2% on a year-on-year basis. The aim is that forces channel the savings into the delivery of operational policing in any combination of three optional approaches: cashable gains where resources are reduced but performance maintained;
I am confident that the 2% will be secured in 1999/2000. I also realise that the playing field had undulations in so far as some forces had already made greater efficiency progress in earlier years. I remain convinced that the debate to level the surface would have been protracted, disruptive to other agenda priorities and there would never have been universal satisfaction with the outcome. 3.21 The shift in thinking from inputs to provable outputs and outcomes must be welcome. It will add strength to the argument for resources in future. There is a concern that it may be difficult to sustain the year-on-year target without cutting into numbers of officers. Indeed recent figures show a decrease of 718 in police numbers, the fourth annual reduction in the last 5 years. An argument obsessed by inputs is flawed and HMIC does not construct a holy grail around the sanctity of police numbers or urge constant growth. Optimum deployment, reduction in sickness and technological support are some of the other key pieces of the jigsaw. However, there is a consistent and constant demand from the public for visibility of officers and there is an issue of officer safety. A continuing decline in officer numbers would have an adverse effect on public confidence and in consequence the fear of crime as well as sapping the morale of officers themselves. 3.22 The specific difficulty of funding adjustments is that, for the police, as a people industry, 85% of its resources are spent on pay and pensions with the cost of the latter continuing to rise at an alarming rate. The option of not recruiting secures the greater savings in the shorter term given the stated commitment of chief constables and police authorities to increase substantially the number of visible ethnic minority officers, this is not the time to apply harsh braking to recruitment. It would relieve some of the burden and help to sustain recruitment if help could be given centrally with the funding of the technology opportunities earlier discussed. They have a crucial role in increasing the efficiency of officers and in tandem will help to deliver reduction in crime. 3.23 During the remainder of 1999 the Service must prepare itself for the discipline of Best Value which will have statutory effect from April 2000. Originally the Local Government Bill had focused the regime on local authority services, not those provided by police authorities. It is a tribute to the desire of the Police Service to be at the cutting edge of innovation and to seek mechanisms to improve service delivery, that six police forces applied to be considered for Best Value pilot status. Ultimately the Police Service, although not initially invited, secured three of the limited number of pilot sites. Now, appropriately, the Police Service is included by statute. 3.24 The philosophy of Best Value is shared by HMIC - the pursuit of continuous improvement. Each police authority, and therefore each force, will be required progressively to submit all aspects of its service to the discipline of Best Value over a five year period. The Best Value plan for the following year will have to demonstrate that the rigour of the four 'C's has been applied to the aspects of service under review:
3.25 The Audit Commission and the District Auditor will certify the plan, and in so doing due account will be taken of HMIC advice. (Fuller detail of the role of HMIC in Best Value provided in paragraph 1.29). The disciplines of Best Value will not be comfortable nor should they be. Whilst the gradient of the learning curve will differ from force to force, I am confident that the new opportunity offered by Best Value will provide the right lens to focus the mind of forces on what they seek themselves to achieve - continuous improvement across the whole range of policing services. OVERARCHING AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 3.26 From the Comprehensive Spending Review evolved the concept of setting overarching aims and objectives for the Police Service. The establishment of those aims and objectives provide clarity of the linkages between Police Service activity, the wider aims of the Home Office and those of the criminal justice system as a whole. For the first time, this approach unpacks the business of policing. The three aims and the eleven supporting objectives delineate the contemporary role of police and reflect the reality of policing (see Appendix B). The underpinning guiding principles provide a constant reminder of the crucial mechanisms to achievement with integrity, partnership and acceptable local priorities featuring strongly. Performance indicators are being worked through in consultation with ACPO, APA, Treasury and the Audit Commission so as not to impose additional burdens on data collection within forces. The intention is to establish clearer and more outcome centred performance indicators that have transparent links to the aims of both the Home Office and the wider criminal justice system. In the interim the Ministerial priorities in relation to young offenders, crime and disorder, drug-related crime plus the issue of confidence in policing amongst visible ethnic minority communities, and their associated performance indicators are in place for the current year. 3.27 HMIC supports the setting of realistic and challenging performance targets. Recent history has witnessed the Service's positive response to targets in areas as diverse as burglary reduction and sickness management. The Police Service is marked by a culture of success and does not relish being seen to fail. In a spirit of healthy competition no force takes any satisfaction from failure where others have succeeded. There is a concern however that an abundance of targets with diverse origins may diffuse the focus and devalue the currency. 3.28 In 2000/2001 forces will be aiming at targets in relation to:
In addition HMIC will be identifying forces performing weakly in particular areas with the intention of securing improved performance that will lift such forces to the performance of the best. Simultaneously Best Value performance and progress on the overarching aims and objectives will be measured and published. 3.29 Item by item, every single one has merit and value. I am concerned that further discussion takes place between the tripartite partners, the Audit Commission and HMIC to provide a framework and context around the package so that Ministers can identify their most important priorities. 3.30 HMIC gathers performance data from forces to feed the inspection process and to assist Home Office officials in policy preparation. At the moment the data is aggregated by each force and the figures reflect the overall performance of that force. Arrangements are in hand to gather the data from forces on a BCU basis. BCUs are the important cogs in the wheel of a force: an importance emphasised by the statutory partnership working within the Crime and Disorder Act. The component BCUs of any force are often so diverse as to mitigate the value of an intra-force comparison. One may be rural, another urban: the demographic and socio-economic complexion of one may be a stranger to another: the mix of residential, business, retail bias may be radically different. Comparison of BCUs of different forces however provides more realistic comparison from which the whole Service can learn best practice. The focus on the BCU is not to prejudice the continuing importance of the performance and accountability of forces as a whole. The BCU is now of such fundamental importance that it is right to maintain a central overview of performance at that level. Within that mix of BCUs are beacons that need to be identified as path finders for the rest. 3.31 The HMIC thematic on Police Integrity reminds the Service, in unequivocal terms, of the problems of corruption and the too frequent inappropriate attitudes or behaviour towards the public. The problems stem from a minority of officers who do irreparable damage to the good work of their colleagues and the reputation of the Service. I welcome therefore the introduction on 1 April this year revised disciplinary procedures. 3.32 In recent years police officers have secured parity with employees in other sectors - for example in the application of health and safety rules to policing - and it is appropriate that there should be an equivalence with those of other employees in disciplinary matters. I welcome the reduction in the burden of proof to the civil as opposed to the criminal standard. The ending of the double jeopardy rule, in addition to the introduction of a fast track procedure where there is clear evidence of serious criminal wrongdoing, are welcome and overdue changes. The perceived failure to deal speedily and effectively with gross misconduct has heaped ridicule on the Service in recent years. The changes will free the hands of the Service to confront its problems and deliver justice as will the enhanced powers to hold a disciplinary hearing in the absence of an accused officer. 3.33 I am aware of the natural concerns of the Superintendents'Association and the Police Federation particularly regarding the changed burden of proof. However the meticulous investigations of complaints, the right to legal representation and inbuilt systems of appeals reassures me that officers will receive the necessary protection from malicious complaints. 3.34 The introduction of formal procedures to deal with unsatisfactory performance with the ultimate sanction of requirement to resign is a further welcome step forward. This is again in line with wider employment practice. It was not right that the lazy or incompetent officer was safe in working life employment unless the individual committed a provable disciplinary offence. The lazy do little so are unlikely to do anything wrong. This was unsustainable. 3.35 The vast majority of police officers do an outstanding job in increasingly difficult and, too often, dangerous circumstances. I am convinced that that vast majority are equally concerned that the corrupt, the unprofessional in attitude or behaviour, or the incorrigibly lazy should not be allowed by an outdated system to tarnish the good name of the honest, the professional and the hard working. It is equally reassuring that the Home Secretary has ordered research into the impact of the disciplinary changes on operational officers. 3.36 It is those operational officers who deserve the most effective training if they are to deliver the quality of service that the public deserve at a time of increasing policing complexity. HMIC had increasing concerns that the training effort was dissipated rather than focused. It seemed that the huge amount of public money spent on police training was not always addressing the right problems to the right audience or securing due return on a considerable public investment. Our thematic on police training Managing Learning (see Chapter 2 paras 2.21 - 2.24) confirmed many HMIC concerns. 3.37 Running in parallel with our work on the thematic, the Home Office conducted their own review of National Police Training (NPT) which accounts for 10% of the funds spent on training. Collaborative work resulted in recommendations that NPT should become accountable to a new Service Authority, funded by a mixture of central funding and direct charging and become more centred on the needs of the customer. The Police Federation, who have justifiable concerns, put forward their own proposals for the future of police training in Project Forward. The document suggested the creation of a Police University and placed an emphasis on distance learning and the use of IT. This was a valuable contribution to the debate. 3.38 The debate continued as the Home Affairs Select Committee launched their own inquiry into police training to which HMIC presented written and oral evidence. Sir William Stubbs, a distinguished educationalist, provided a further study at the invitation of the Home Secretary. 3.39 I was pleased to note the weight accorded to the HMIC thematic both by the Home Affairs Committee in its report and by others. This important issue has now been researched in depth and few perspectives on police training have been ignored. I look forward, as this year progresses, to the definitive future of police training being found and collectively owned. The Service has missed opportunities to develop the professionalism of many of its officers and other staff, particularly the great majority who remain career constables. The rhetoric that such people are the backbone of the Service is somewhat hollow if that backbone is allowed to crumble for want of the calcium of appropriate, regular and relevant training.
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