Background to the Committee's inquiry
3. In a white paper published in 2001, Policing a new century:
a blueprint for reform, the Government set out its intentions
to address high crime levels and low detection rates, increase
public confidence in the police and make the service more responsive
to local needs through a programme of police reform.[1]
This work has resulted in changes to the membership and powers
of police authorities; the introduction of neighbourhood policing,
accompanied by the appointment of new police community support
officers; the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints
Commission to improve handling of complaints against the police,
and a National Policing Improvement Agency to drive good practice
throughout the service; and a greater role for the Home Secretary
to intervene over poor performance. The merging of local forces
into larger regional structures has also been considered, and
abandoned.
4. However, these measures have not addressed the
concerns of the public or police forces themselves, and many
of the original questions posed in the 2001 white paper remain
unresolved. Despite British Crime Survey statistics showing a
steady fall in crime levels, which are down 45% since 1995, 65%
of people interviewed for the 2007/08 survey thought crime in
the country had increased in the last two years. Public dissatisfaction
with the police is high: only 53% of people thought that the police
in their area did an excellent or good job in 2007/08.[2]
5. Police representatives have argued against the
current system of Government targets as ineffective in driving
police performance, and what they view as excessive interference
from the centre to the detriment of local autonomy. The Police
Federation and the Association of Chief Police Officers have called
for a Royal Commission to ensure a more fundamental review of
how policing is organised and delivered. The last Royal Commission
on Policing sat in the early 1960s, and the context of policing
has changed dramatically in the intervening years.
6. We concurred on the need for a broader examination
of policing in the 21st century. In the course of the last two
Parliaments, the Home Affairs Committee has held inquiries into
the police reform agenda and police funding, as well as considering
relevant police activity during inquiries into anti-social behaviour,
counter-terrorism and domestic violence. However, none of our
predecessor Committees has ever held a wide-ranging inquiry into
the state of policing in England and Wales. Our Report, while
it does not deal with every aspect of policing, is an attempt
to draw together the evidence on what were put to us as the main
challenges of policing in the 21st century.
7. Our inquiry coincided with the publication of
two major policy documents on policing: Sir Ronnie Flanagan's
Review of Policing and a Government Green Paper, From
the Neighbourhood to the National: Policing our Communities Together.
We respond to their conclusions in our Report, in the context
of the evidence we received during our inquiry. We hope that this
evidence will inform the continuing debate on policing in the
21st century and expect the Government to take full account of
our recommendations as part of its programme of police reform.
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