Minister wants to hire U.S. crimebusters to take over British police
- Former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents
- Changes rip up tradition of only British citizens serving in the police
Foreign crimebusters such as US supercop Bill Bratton will be given the chance to take over British police forces under radical new plans to be unveiled by Home Secretary Theresa May.
And former Army officers will be recruited as police superintendents in an attempt to end the ‘closed shop’ police culture blamed for bungled investigations and corruption. The changes, set to be fiercely opposed by police chiefs, rip up the centuries-old tradition of only British citizens serving in the police.
They also abolish the rule that senior policemen have to work their way up from being a bobby on the beat.
Tough: Bill Bratton (pictured left) cut murders in New York but couldn’t lead in London
Mrs May believes there are too few talented people at the top of the police. Crucially, she hopes the shake-up will lead to more women and people from ethnic minorities in high command. The reforms will have a major effect on policing at three levels:
- Graduates in their 20s will be offered a fast-track ‘direct entry’ to the police with promotion to inspector rank in just three years, without having to work as constables before they are promoted.
- Former Army officers, businessmen and others from the private sector in their 30s and 40s with ‘exceptional achievements and abilities’ will be encouraged to apply for jobs as superintendents.
- Newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners will be given permission to recruit chief constables from the US, Australia and other English-speaking nations with UK-style ‘common law policing by consent’.
Theresa May believes there are too few talented people at the top of the police
Mr Bratton, former head of New York City Police and the Los Angeles Police Department, was drafted in by David Cameron to advise on tackling gang warfare in Britain in 2011.
The Prime Minister had suggested putting him in charge of the Metropolitan Police but was forced to drop the plan after protests by British police chiefs. In the end, the job advert said ‘only British citizens can apply’.
Mrs May’s initiative follows mounting controversy over policing in the UK highlighted by the cover-up in the Hillsborough stadium disaster, police conduct in the phone-hacking scandal and the ‘plebgate’ row between former Minister Andrew Mitchell and Downing Street officers.
Her controversial decision to cut constables’ starting pay by £4,000 can now be seen as part of a major overhaul of police recruitment and salaries.
Ministers privately complain that one of the major problems in fighting crime is the ‘lack of talent’ in senior policing posts.
A Downing Street source said: ‘It will bring a breath of fresh air to policing. We can’t slam the door in the face of talent just because they haven’t paced the high street as a PC. And without these changes, it will take decades to change the all-white and all-male image of the police.’
When Mr Cameron first suggested hiring Mr Bratton, he said: ‘Why shouldn’t someone with a different skill-set be able to join the police force in a senior role? Why shouldn’t someone who has been a proven success overseas be able to help turn around a force at home?’
But Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: ‘I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them.
The notion that you can ship someone in from another country to run a police force in a different environment and a different culture is quite simply stupid.’
Mr Bratton, 65, became renowned for his ‘no-nonsense’ approach to policing when he was in charge of America’s two largest police departments.
He halved New York’s murder rate and cut violent crime by 50 per cent in Los Angeles.
Also: Top foreign police to be recruited as chief constables
Euro Converter
These are not new proposals but this time there seems to be a determination to push these changes through.
Firstly, the recruitment of top class graduates as inspectors to be fast tracked and not having the grounding as constables. It seems to have been forgotten that all officers in the police regardless of rank are viewed as constables in the eye of the law. (MPS and City excepted at the rank of deputy assistant commissioner upwards).
Inspectors will be required to exercise their powers as constables unless they never leave the office so they will have to be trained as constables first. This requires both theoretical and practical experience.
The constable is also an autonomous crown servant and as Lord Denning stated in 1968, is only answerable to the law.
How a recent graduate with no life experience, experience as a police officer, will be able to perform the varied role of an inspector and lead a team of experienced constables and sergeants is beyond me.
Secondly, the direct recruitment of superintendents from the officer corps or private industry etc. The same problems as those applicable to inspectors apply. In addition, these are posts requiring an in depth knowledge of policing and the use of acquired experience of the law as specifically applicable to the police. Without these skills, which cannot be trained in 16 months, the incumbent would be floundering in the extreme.
Thirdly, the recruitment of chief officers from abroad, such as the USA. Having researched the USA crime scene (only to a limited extent) I am not sure that we need to have leaders that are overseeing far higher rates of murder, gang crime, drug deprivation etc in charge of our police. I am not so insular as to believe we cannot learn from others but there are many as competent people in our forces.
Finally, are we to see senior police officers likewise transferring to the armed forces and leapfrog into industry? I doubt it but the same argument being used by Cameron and May should equally allow this. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
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A non list member writes:
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News just in -- British public set to allow foreign politicians to run the Palace of Westminster. In a shock vote the British public have decided that there is a dearth of talent at the top of British politics. A spokesperson for the British Public Insist Something Special Evolves Diligently Office (B PI**ED Off for short) said “With the lack of talent at the top of British Politics we are fed up with half baked ideas, corruption and a total lack of regard for anyone who is not a millionaire. We have therefore decided to recruit politicians from America, Canada and Australia -- well anywhere that will provide us with relief from these creeps who have no idea about the real world or how to run public services.”
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Well you can see the pieces falling into place now. Rubbish everything. Go back and dig up everything you can to undermine and criticise. Put in place political puppets to run Forces and then introduce this crackpot idea telling said puppets do it or lose your post.
Will the introduction of any of these avoid the problems they are concerned with? No. Any talent will quickly realise they can earn more elsewhere with less hassle. Those that stay will not have the said talent and will be a millstone on the Police. Neither will they be able to do anything to avoid corruption or investigative shortcomings because when money is tight one of the first cuts is training because it is expensive and takes officers from the streets. Wake up Britain, you are sleep walking into a disaster. Crime on London Buses UP in the last two years. How long have this lot been in? And the cuts are still to have full effect.
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It MUST be something in the water, you just can’t make it up. Is Mr. Donald Duck allowed to apply, I recall seeing him dressed in an American police uniform, he might be getting on a bit, but age discrimination will save him ?
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