9. Memorandum submitted by
Hertfordshire Police Authority
This submission has been specifically prepared
for the Committee but is based on Hertfordshire Police Authority's
(HPA) response to the Green Paper "Building Safer Communities
Together" (BSCT).
NATIONAL POLICE
PLAN AND
THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN NATIONAL
PRIORITIES AND
LOCAL DECISION
MAKING
HPA consulted widely on BSCT including specially
arranged surveys, focus groups and a stakeholder conference as
well as using an already arranged consultation meeting and the
results of a recent MORI survey.
The consultees considered overwhelmingly that
there should be local standards which set out the quality of local
services they could expect from the police.
In the current system, local needs should be
taken into account in the community safety strategies at Crime
and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) level (in Herts, that
means District Council level) and in the Local Policing Plan at
police force level (in Herts, that means County level).
In theory this system provides a "bottom
up" approach. In practice however it conflicts with "top
down" pressures.
Police Authorities are required by legislation
to produce three year strategy plans and an annual Local Policing
Plan. The Strategy Plan must be consistent with the National Policing
Plan which is produced by the Home Office and which is also in
theory a three year document but is changed annually. In reality
therefore the Police Authority's annual Local Policing Plan reflects
the objectives in the Home Office's annually produced National
Policing Plan.
The National Policing Plan itself reflects the
objectives in the Home Office's Public Service agreement (eg reducing
burglary) but it does not set any specific targets (eg reduction
by a certain percentage). These are for the Police Authority to
set. However the Home Office's Police Standards Unit (PSU) monitors
each force's performance against those objectives, comparing the
performance of other forces in their "family" of Most
Similar Forces (ie those which are most similar in terms of population,
deprivation etc). So although the objectives in the Local Policing
Plan will not have included specific objectives to reflect performance
by other forces, in practice these "targets" must be
taken into account to avoid "engagement" by the PSU.
The effect of this is that not only objectives
but also targets are set nationally, leaving little room for local
issues. For example a community might accept a higher level of
burglary provided that the police dealt with local anti social
behaviour or protected children, but the community's wishes might
be difficult to reflect in the Local Policing Plan without risking
PSU intervention.
On the other hand if funding were divided into
different "pots" for national and local priorities (eg
£x for burglary and £y for ASBOs) there could still
be some difficulties. An example would be a local priority to
close down a crack house which might itself be linked to a cross-Force
drugs cartel.
In summary there is a tension in the relationship
between national and local priorities which, given inevitably
limited resources, must be recognised.
ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS
In Hertfordshire there is one County Council,
no Unitary councils and 10 District councils. There are 10 CDRPs.
There are three Basic Command Units (BCUs) which do not reflect
any other structure involved in community safety (each covering
three or four CDRPs).
HPA's view is that funding should be at police
force level, and at CDRP level if necessary, and that we should
concentrate on making CDRPs work well.
It may be thought that policy should be decided
by the Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) (who will also be considering
policy on housing, leisure etc) and that CDRPs are simple a delivery
mechanism. In reality LSPs are not currently deciding on community
safety policy in a structured manner and there is no formal link
with police authorities or police forces. This compares with the
Responsible Authority Group (RAG) for CDRPs on which both authorities
and forces are represented, as well as health etc. HPA is represented
on each RAG in Hertfordshire by a member of the authority. If
District Council members as well as officers made an input to
the RAG for each CDRP, there would be a proper policy making forum
as well as an implementation body. If funds were to be put under
the control of the RAG/CDRP, the police element could be based
on a proportion of police overall income, distributed between
the CDRPs on a formula funding basis.
29 July 2004
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