| Summary
Three years on from the launch of the Government's police reform programme, we felt the time was right to take stock. Our inquiry is a 'snapshot' of the current state of police reform, assessing what has been achieved so far and where the process is heading.
Most of our witnesses agreed that the overall direction of the police reform programme has been the right one. However, the implementation of the reforms has varied in its effectiveness. A shift between the first and second phases of reform, from a 'centralising' to 'localist' approach, has been generally welcomed.
A focus on performance has been crucial to the reform agenda. We review the mechanisms by which the Government has sought to achieve this. We conclude that a performance culture has begun to embed itself in the police service. However, there is still scope for considerable improvement.
Some of the aspirations expressed when the reform process was launched have not yet been met—in particular, an improvement in the crime detection rate. We accept that this rate has a limited usefulness as an indicator of police effectiveness, because it does not distinguish between serious and minor crimes. Nonetheless, it is still a matter for concern that too few criminals are brought to justice. In the next phase of police reform more attention should be paid to improving the capacity of the police to detect crime. We emphasise the importance of the Government's target of increasing the sanction detection rate from 19% to at least 25% by 2008.
Overall it is right that the top priority should be crime reduction. The success of police reform will in large measure be judged by whether crime rates fall—and in particular by whether the new PSA target of a 15% fall by 2007-08 is met.
There is a confusing variety of bodies dealing with aspects of the police reform process, with unnecessary overlap between them. We accept the logic of the Government's proposal to create a Policing Improvement Agency, to rationalise many of these functions within a single body. However, we call for clarity about the role of the Agency and its relations with other organisations such as the Police Standards Unit. Responsibility for carrying out short-term interventions in underperforming forces should be separated from the long-term task of improving the overall skills base of the police service. We emphasise the importance of adequately resourcing the new Agency.
We discuss the funding of police training. The evidence suggests that training has recently been squeezed on budgetary grounds. This is likely to prove a false economy. We recommend that there should be no further cuts in the police training budget unless areas of obvious waste have been clearly identified. We also call on the Home Office and ACPO to investigate whether it is the case, as has been claimed, that training is disproportionately targeted at the higher ranks.
We welcome the simplification of priorities and greater emphasis on local decision-making in the most recent National Policing Plan and the new police-related PSA targets. We emphasise the need also for a real reduction in centrally determined targets that are set outside the PSA framework.
It is sensible to involve Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in police target-setting. However, there are two dangers: that this may become a back-door way of setting local targets for the police, and that there is potential for confusing overlap between the roles of the CDRPs and of police authorities. The Home Office should invite HMIC to monitor the operation of local target-setting.
We support the principle of greater public involvement in local policing. The views of the public should inform decision-making but not dictate it, and the Home Office should avoid imposing an identical consultative structure on every area.
We consider the future of the present 43-force structure. There is little appetite within the police or the wider community for a major structural upheaval or large-scale force amalgamations. The sensible way forward is through development of a limited number of 'lead forces', who will develop specialist expertise and share this with neighbouring forces. The Home Office should issue clarification of funding and accountability mechanisms for proposed lead forces and an assessment of their implications for other forces.
There is a strong public desire, which we support, for more police officers to be returned to the beat. Good progress has been made in implementing some of the recommendations of the Bureaucracy Taskforce. The use of fixed-penalty tickets has played a significant part in freeing up police time. However, these gains have been at the margins. The real potential for saving police time and resources lies in introducing more effective information technology. There has been a long-standing failure to develop an integrated case and custody system. We recommend that the Home Office should supply us with regular progress reports on this project until it has been fully implemented.
The Government's definition of 'front-line policing' as including work on case files and report preparation skews the statistics and gives an exaggerated impression of success in returning police officers to street duties. We recommend that the definition of 'front-line policing' should be changed to exclude time spent dealing with paperwork indoors.
We comment on the Government's reforms of police pay, conditions and working practices. We congratulate the Home Office on its success in reducing high rates of ill-health retirement and sickness absence. We support the greater flexibility which Special Priority Payments will bring in the use of resources, but consider it too early to carry out a full assessment of their effects.
Despite recent increases in recruitment from minority ethnic groups, many police forces remain unrepresentative of their wider communities. The best way forward is through a combination of 'positive action' (promotional and outreach activities aimed at encouraging more members of minority groups to join the police) and prioritising in recruitment of certain abilities such as language skills and knowledge of cultural background, where this can be justified on a purely crime-fighting basis as relevant to policing needs in particular areas.
We believe that membership of the BNP and similar racist organisations is incompatible with being a police officer, and we look forward to this restriction being made legally enforceable. Formal restrictions should be accompanied by a determined effort to root out unacceptable attitudes.
We have no reason to believe that there are any major problems with the current system of career breaks. However, we recommend that the Secretary of State's national policy on police career breaks should be amended to make it a requirement that all individual force policies should contain stipulations in respect of court commitments.
We support the Government's intention to merge the pay and conditions of police officers and staff. There should be a single police service pay spine up which individuals will progress according to their skills and expertise. The office of constable should be retained.
Community Support Officers have proved popular with the public in their role as high-visibility patrollers. They are most useful when they work in close liaison with police officers, and any extension of their powers which reduces their street presence would be counter-productive. Police forces and authorities should be given the flexibility to decide for themselves whether they wish to spend extra resources on CSOs or on other personnel or activities.
We support the Government's proposals to improve call-handling. At present it is often difficult for members of the public to contact the police. This is not acceptable. However, the Home Office must ensure that suitable training and staff resources are made available to ensure that the new systems are a success. We also welcome the proposed introduction of a single non-emergency number. The Home Office should address concerns about the need for appropriate back-up systems in its planning for the new number.
More rapid progress is needed in tackling unacceptable variation in the adoption of DNA technology by individual forces. As a precautionary measure, the Home Office should consider whether changes in practice are necessary to deal with the potential problem of multiple identities. We welcome the Forensic Integration Strategy, aimed at integrating all forms of forensic evidence by 2008.
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