Home Secretary Theresa May said:  Today we’ve launched a consultation paper which outlines new ways to change the face of policing over the next five years, and we’d like you to get involved and have your say.                                    

The consultation Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting Police and the People contains proposals for ways to make police in England and Wales more available and responsive, more accountable, more effective, and better value for money.

Read the press release here.

The consultation asks what you think about:

• electing police and crime commissioners who will make sure your local police focus on what is important to you
• creating a powerful new national crime agency to lead the fight against organised crime and strengthen border security
• ensuring police forces work more closely with each other and share resources where they can
• cutting bureaucracy and removing restrictive health and safety procedures to free up officers’ time
• getting people more involved in the work of their police forces

No doubt you cannot wait to let them know your feelings so click on this link ……

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/news/tell-us-about-reforming-police

Picture – Ian Tomlinson being violently knocked to the ground. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The police officer caught on video striking newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson during last year’s G20 protests in London faces disciplinary proceedings, the Metropolitan police  commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, told MPs today.

Tomlinson later died. His family today called for those proceedings to be held in public. Stephenson’s announcement came less than a week after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would not press charges against PC Simon Harwood, a member of Scotland Yard’s territorial support group.  That decision provoked anger from Tomlinson’s family and supporters. The Met commissioner said the officer has been told he will face a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct after the force received an independent report into the incident. Stephenson told a meeting of the Commons home affairs committee that he was “disturbed” by the footage of Tomlinson being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground. “I can confirm that the officer has been notified that a decision has been made to bring disciplinary proceedings for gross misconduct,” he said, adding: “It is right we move swiftly and it is also right that there is full public disclosure at the inquest.”                                                                                                                                                      

But it would be “entirely inappropriate” to comment on the CPS decision, announced on Thursday, not to prosecute, he said. The incident had “cast a shadow” on the professionalism of the “overwhelming” number of officers and staff involved in policing G20.

 Stephenson said: “I do fully understand the Tomlinson family and public sense of anger, having seen the video of the incident prior to the death of Ian Tomlinson. “I do understand the level of outrage that this did not lead to a criminal prosecution, I can sense it and I can feel it.”

Tomlinson died after the G20 demonstrations on 1 April 2009 in central London.

The official account, that he died from a heart attack, was challenged when the Guardian obtained video footage showing a riot officer striking the 47-year-old with a baton and pushing him to the ground shortly before he collapsed and died. But after a 15-month investigation, Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said last week there was “no realistic prospect” of a conviction owing to a conflict between postmortem examinations.

Tomlinson’s family welcomed Stephenson’s announcement. Jules Carey, their solicitor, said: “There is provision in the police conduct regulations for misconduct proceedings to be held in public if it is in the public interest. There is an overwhelming argument in this case that the proceedings should be held in public. The family will be looking carefully at what the charges are, the timing of proceedings and whether they are open to the public.”

Paul King, Tomlinson’s stepson, said: “If the officer faces disciplinary charges now, does that mean he could get away with not facing charges for the death of our dad if there is an unlawful killing verdict at the inquest? I can see how it would look nice for the police if the officer turned up to the inquest in his civilian clothes.”

King added that public support “has really lifted us up and given us strength to keep going”.

Stephenson is sympathetic to the hearings being held public but would not back such a move if it unduly delayed Tomlinson’s inquest.

The Commons committee is to write to the home secretary, Theresa May, over Starmer’s failure to prosecute. Its chairman, Keith Vaz, has also asked the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, to review the decision.   Grieve said he supported the CPS decision, but that he sympathised with the anger that the decision had provoked. “No one who has seen the pictures of Mr Tomlinson’s treatment that day could fail to be disturbed by them,” he said. But the facts “were rightly and thoroughly investigated”.

Speaking to the committee earlier, the policing minister, Nick Herbert, said he was “deeply unhappy” about the incident. “Clearly we have concerns about what happened, as anybody would on viewing that video,” he said. “But I think we also do recognise there are still formal proceedings which have to be gone through.” There was a continuing investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the disciplinary action by the Met commissioner.

The IPCC has powers to direct hearings to be held openly, but it is thought they have only been used once. Its temporary chair, Len Jackson, said: “We have been verbally informed by the Metropolitan police that they will be recommending gross misconduct proceedings for the officer in the Ian Tomlinson case. “We are pleased the Metropolitan police has responded quickly to the file of evidence we provided them with on Friday. We welcome their proposal and await receipt of a formal letter from the Met which will set out the full detail. “We will examine the proposed course of action before agreeing how this should proceed and respond as swiftly as possible.”

The Green MP Caroline Lucas is planning an early day motion in parliament expressing disquiet over how Tomlinson’s death and inquiry were handled.

The MP for Brighton Pavilion called on the City of London coroner, Paul Matthews, to step aside because of his decision to appoint the pathologist Freddy Patel to conduct the first crucial postmortem on Tomlinson. Patel has been suspended from the Home Office register and faces being struck off by the General Medical Council over claims he botched four other autopsies. His actions after the Tomlinson’s death were also criticised by prosecutors in a document released alongside their decision.

Lucas said the home secretary should appoint a judge to oversee a “prompt and effective” inquest into the “far-ranging issues” raised by the case while the Tomlinson family should receive public funds to support their legal challenge.

The only police misconduct hearing to be held in public followed the fatal stabbing of 24-year-old Colette Lynch in Rugby in February 2005. Two PCs were found guilty of failing to conduct their duties “conscientiously and diligently” when they were called to Lynch’s home. They were fined five days’ pay. Lynch’s former partner Percy Wright was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and detained at a secure psychiatric unit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/27/ian-tomlinson-death-paul-stephenson

Senior police officers are planning to cull thousands of injured officers as part of a cost-cutting drive.

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent      Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Under plans being drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), between 14,000 and 18,000 officers whose injuries mean they are no longer able to work on the front line would be offered severance packages.

The Police Federation, which represents 126,000 frontline officers, and the National Disabled Police Association (NDPA) say that any plan to force out injured officers could fall foul of disability legislation and promised to fight any move to target such a group.

Police officers cannot be made redundant, but Acpo is lobbying the Government to change the regulations. Officers on “restricted duties” cost the police service some £40m in salaries.

Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester and the Acpo spokesman on workforce development, stressed that it was not the intention to introduce compulsory redundancies, but Acpo wants the ability to seek voluntary redundancies. He said: “In most forces around 10 per cent of officers are not fully fit for duty. Some will have physical issues with injuries sustained on duty, some may be suffering psychological issues and are no longer able to handle conflict on the street. Some are not available for shift work and so their flexibility is reduced and that can breed resentment among other staff.

“In the past forces used to give out medical pensions. But we reined back because it was so expensive. It means that we now have a number of officers working in our forces who are not fully fit. Forces can accommodate a number of them by putting them in jobs that do not require fitness. But as the financial situation bites and spending cuts come we need to look at that again.

“We are aware that lots of officers have given good service, but on the other hand we are aware that in other sectors there would not be the same accommodation.”

The plan is to introduce a voluntary redundancy package which can be offered to officers who are on “light” or “restricted” duties. It would, Mr Fahy accepted, need to be more lucrative than the sum officers would get if they were to take the pension entitled to them at that moment in time. But it would be less than the pension the force would be required to contribute to should the officer continue working in a back-office function until he or she had worked the 30 years required to claim a full pension.

“At the moment a pension locks people in and creates an incentive for people to stay because the amount you are entitled to increases, especially in the last five years of your service,” Mr Fahy said. “If you have an officer who is injured very early in their service that officer could be in employment for the next 30 years. We have not come up with an easy way to get through this but it is certainly an issue that forces are raising.

“In some ways it is difficult to see how it would work. We would look to put together a redundancy package. But because of the sort of guarantee officers have at the moment it would need to be pretty attractive. Another thing we have discussed is offering them positions as civilians.”

Any move to target unfit officers would be particularly contentious, especially in the wake of the Raoul Moat incident in which PC David Rathband was left blind after being shot in the face.

Critics have suggested that the proposal is unfairly targeting officers who have been injured in the line of duty. And some fear it could force injured officers, scared of losing their jobs, back on to the streets before they are ready. 

Ian Rennie, the general secretary of the Police Federation, said that if injured officers are to leave forces they should be given full medical pensions.

He said: “The Police Federation believes that the current number of officers on restricted duties is as a result of forces seeking to achieve Home Office police ill-health pension targets over a number of years, together with the poor management of the performance regulations.

“The Police Federation will continue to support any member on restricted duties who is subject to these procedures and will challenge any action taken by forces that is potentially discriminatory on the grounds of an officer’s disability.”

Deborah Munday, chairwoman of the NDPA, added: “To be injured while doing your job is bad enough and takes a long time to get used to, and you feel very vulnerable. To learn that you could be targeted in this way makes that even worse.”

Case study: PC who believes injured officers can still be useful

PC Albert Williams, Humberside Police:   One weekend seven years ago PC Albert Williams was chasing a suspect following a fight outside a nightclub when he fell over, fracturing his shoulder in nine places. 

In a hospital corridor he sat and cried after being told by a surgeon that he would never be able to raise his arm above waist height and his career as a frontline police officer was effectively over. 

He refused to accept his fate and set about proving the surgeons wrong. Following a successful operation to re-wire his joint, PC Williams rejoined the force. 

He would eventually resume full duties. But for the next nine months PC Williams, who has worked on firearms teams and riot squads during his 22 years in service, was placed on light duties while his arm healed. 

“I did clerical work in the police station,” he said. “The task force I was working on at the time was regularly doing drug busts and I would sit in the office and plan them. Rather than taking it in turns to do plans, I made it my responsibility. I was still a part of the team, the only difference being I was not out on the streets with them.”

Unsurprisingly given his experience, PC Williams is strongly against offering injured officers redundancy packages.

He added: “Just because an officer is not out on the street does not mean they cannot make a valuable contribution. If an officer is seriously injured then they should be given the opportunity to carry on a worthwhile career within the organisation.

“I know that some people might think we are playing the system but that is not true. I could have given up. I could probably have left with a medical pension. But that is not what we want. What we want is to be police officers, that is why we joined the force.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/injured-officers-first-in-line-as-police-make-cuts-2036187.html

Taken from Inspector Gadget’s Blog – http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/the-naughty-step/

Welcome to “The Naughty Step”. Police Forces in England and Wales who have ignored the Home Secretary’s stated aim to abolish Policing Pledge and Public Confidence targets, will be here, sitting on the naughty step.

Ignoring Theresa May’s instructions on June 29th 2010 is naughty because for 13 years, ACPO officers collectively wrung their hands and rolled over to acquiesce to everything the Home Office suggested, no matter how silly or damaging.

Now, suddenly, they pretend that they do not have to do what the Home Office tell them, even though it makes perfect sense.

Like a toddler having a tantrum, this is plain naughty.

Sitting on the naughty step and nominated by over 300 of their own police officers who have commented on the post (as of 19th July 2010) are:

Bedfordshire Police

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

City Of London Police

Devon & Cornwall Police

Dorset Police

Hertfordshire Constabulary

Sussex Police

Kent Police

Leicestershire Constabulary

Northumbria Police

Metropolitan Police

Cumbria Constabulary

West Yorkshire Police

South Yorkshire Police

Ruralshire Constabulary

Lancashire Constabulary

Lincolnshire Police

Northamptonshire Police

Nottinghamshire Police

Surrey Police

North Yorkshire Police

Norfolk Constabulary

Essex Police

Gloucestershire Constabulary

British Transport Police

Cheshire Constabulary

West Mercia Police

Derbyshire Constabulary

Police red tape that hampers day-to-day crime fighting and allows officers to earn thousands of pounds in overtime is to be reformed, it can be disclosed.

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Published: 10:23PM BST 23 Jul 2010

Chief officers have become frustrated by the requirement that rank and file officers be given three months’ notice of their shifts Photo: ALAMY

Officers across the country earn, on average, up to £3,000 a year in overtime, creating an annual bill for the taxpayer of almost £400million, new figures have shown — a system that has been described as “madness”.

Senior officers believe this and other regulations that govern the way police work are too rigid, and want more flexibility in how they can use officers.

They are concerned that the current system restricts their ability to deploy staff, keep costs down and protect the public.

A review by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) will look at overtime and what are regarded as “out-of-date” rules.

Chief officers have become frustrated, for example, by the requirement that rank and file officers be given three months’ notice of their shifts, with any changes made at short notice raising the prospect of overtime payments. Any officers called in from days off without 15 days notice are also entitled to extra payments, while others can earn four hours’ overtime for taking a phone call when off-duty.

The moves to reform overtime come ahead of an announcement next week by the Home Office on plans for radical police reform, including moves to amend health and safety laws that currently prevent “common sense” policing.

A consultation document will also propose replacing police authorities with directly elected individuals, while the Serious Organised Crime Agency — created by the last Labour government and dubbed the British FBI — is set to be dismantled and incorporated into the country’s first dedicated national Border Police Force.

Last month, Sir Hugh Orde, the president of Acpo, warned that current policing numbers were not sustainable in the wake of government cuts and “critical duties” may be threatened.

The employment of police officers and overtime payments are governed by a document called the Police Regulations, but sources at Acpo believe many sections are out of date or too rigid for modern policing.

Simon Ash, Acpo’s spokesman on the subject and the Chief Constable of Suffolk, said: “The development of a modern pay and reward framework is essential and urgent. Policing is a 24/7 operation.

“An overhaul of the reward mechanisms that are currently in place could potentially deliver some immediate cash savings and provide chief officers with critical flexibility which reflects the realities of modern policing.”

Sir Denis O’Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, has said that the rules were designed for “a different era of policing” and did not allow sufficient flexibility.

He disclosed earlier this week that only one in 10 officers is available to tackle crime.

The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, insisted that the Police Regulations already provided chief constables with sufficient flexibility and challenged Acpo to explain their concerns.

Ian Rennie, the Federation’s general secretary, said: “Police Regulations are a police officer’s contract of employment. They do not restrict chief officers and I would challenge those who perpetuate this myth to tell us exactly why they consider this is to be the case.”

The police service has been warned by the Home Office that the overtime bill will have to be cut as part of public spending reductions.

More than £450million was paid in overtime within the police service in 2008-09, made up of more than £385 million to officers and £66million to civilian staff. The rest went to 128,740 constables and sergeants in England and Wales.

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “If the Home Office scrapped their red tape then it would free officers up to plug the gaps, saving taxpayers money and reducing the pressure on officers.

“It is madness to try and plug gaps in the thin blue line by using overtime and overworked staff.”

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7907899/Police-overtime-to-be-slashed.html

Police chief tells officers: Don’t follow the rules…use your common sense!

23rd July 2010

Thames Valley Chief Constable Sara Thornton, (pictured), wants her officers to use their discretion

A police chief today urged officers to ‘use common sense’ instead of following a set of complicated rules when tackling crime.

Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Sara Thornton said there were was too much Government guidance for officers who were not allowed to ‘use their discretion’.

‘The danger is officers spend a lot of their time following the rules rather than using their common sense,’ she said. ‘I don’t say this to criticise officers. It’s the system that we have created.

‘We need to be realistic about what the police service can do in the light of reducing resources. We need to have less complex guidance and give officers the space to use their discretion.

‘All of this takes time and takes officers off the street and the public want to see officers available and on the street.’ 

She cited a case in 2005 when the force tried and failed to take a student to court after he called a mounted policeman’s horse ‘gay’.

‘In hindsight there might have been a better way to deal with that,’ Chief Constable Thornton  said. She also criticised the amount of paperwork officers did for the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.

‘Because we deal with a lot of high-risk situations, the response over the last ten years has been to write more and more guidance for officers so there are more and more rules.’ 

Last year the Government issued 52 new guidelines for police officers.

Chief Constable Thornton also revealed officers lived in fear of probes by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and also questioned the use of Home Office crime figures, saying she was not convinced they were useful.

She said: ‘If you take the case file that’s required for the CPS for a straightforward case, it’s very complicated. It has got three times as many forms than there were when I was a constable.

‘This is an area where we need to take a precautionary view on the paperwork.  We are really trying to persuade the new Government we shouldn’t have to send so many statistics to the Home Office because it requires a huge amount of work. I’m not sure it’s worth it.’ 

On Tuesday, police watchdog HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Denis O’Connor, said only one in every ten police officers was available to tackle crime at any one time.

Chief Constable Thornton added: ‘I don’t think we (Thames Valley Police) would be very much different.’

—————
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297074/Police-chief-tells-officers-Dont-follow-rules–use-common-sense.html#ixzz0uW0TaCgl

Police spend most of their time acting as ‘emergency social services’, according to a chief constable.      

Julie Spence, head of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said officers spent just a third of their time fighting crime. The rest they spend dealing with necessary but time-consuming work such as finding missing people and attending road accidents.

In a weekly internet podcast, Mrs Spence, pictured, called for officers to be given more time on the streets and less in offices.

She also attacked ‘irresponsible’ drinkers, calling for a new climate of responsibility to reduce pressure on hard-pressed public services.

‘Someone has to deal with the mayhem, others have to patch up the wounded and yet others have to clean up the mess,’ she said.

‘It all takes time and money which would be better spent on dealing with crime and with the vulnerable who need real help and protection.

‘I agree entirely with those who call for less paperwork and more action. My aim has always been to get officers and PCSOs spending less time in the office and more time on the streets’

She also said that the approach of characters in the television series Dixon Of Dock Green and Life On Mars would not work in 2010.

‘These days, our task roughly comprises of one-third dealing with crime and two-thirds engaged as a uniformed emergency and social services’ said Mrs Spence.

‘Policing has evolved. Dixon Of Dock Green’s homely approach, a pat on the shoulder for concerned families or clip round the ear for wrongdoers, wouldn’t work today.

‘Neither would the tactics employed in Life On Mars, though some, I suspect, regret their passing.

‘Forms must be filled in and every contact between police and public must be recorded. That’s how it is and much can be useful.’

 ’There’s no denying that we are obliged to keep records. We have no choice and, in any event, it would be a poor organisation which was unable to point to successes and failures.’

She went on: ‘Even those with the least grip on reality know that the public services must make cuts and, if all the forecasts are right, they will become more savage as time passes.

‘I have very little doubt that police officer numbers will eventually suffer as the screw tightens. Whether that will be next year or in five years is difficult to call.

‘Whilst I can’t and I don’t have any quarrel with the need to economise, what I and other senior colleagues have been trying to explain is that there needs to be an acceptance at the highest levels that the answer is not – and never has been – as simple as just catching criminals.

‘Someone has to deal with the mayhem, others have to patch up the wounded and yet others have to clean up the mess. It all takes time and money which would be better spent on dealing with crime and with the vulnerable who need real help and protection.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1296819/Policing-social-work-catching-criminals-says-chief-constable.html#ixzz0uVvr7Q69