If resources are being reduced, then should we be asking the police to focus only on some areas - or even only on some crimes?
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What things should the police be doing? What should their priorities be?
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It's obvious: fighting crime. My impression is that public opinion drives increasing resources towards illegal immigration and terrorism even though the former might even benefit the UK and the later has not caused big losses of life either. Not that it does not matter but my impression is that the resources devoted to it are not in proporation to the threat.
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Thank you for sharing that view. The current debate on police cuts in funding is sometimes framed in terms of being a question about what the police will have to stop doing, and what crimes will be less well responded to. There is a recent blog post that makes a counter-argument here, at the same time as setting out the scale of the challenge - https://dccdavethompson.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/difficult-time-for-all-our-staff/
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Doing policing work and not being the last line of defence for the ever retracting social services. Proactive work is great but under credited, and there is very little visibility of their activities in mental health and vulnerability. If it isn't criminal or potential to be criminal they just shouldn't be expected to do it, I think we are in for a shock when they also dig their heels in and stop doing it in normal day2day activities.
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Thanks for posting. There is an article in today's (at the time of posting) Wakefield Express by West Yorkshire's PCC suggesting cuts to police budgets will have negative impacts on healthcare and education owing to increased low level crime - http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/crime/police-budget-cuts-will-pile-pressure-on-health-service-and-lead-to-crime-warns-west-yorkshire-crime-commissioner-mark-burns-williamson-1-7570895
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I guess in terms of their responsibilities I’d argue that in the first instance they are probably there to enforce the law. On second thoughts, however, I realise that that’s probably a far too narrow view, given the many other roles they now play. To some extent there is therefore a debate similar to medical practitioners in that they are taking on a more preventative role. I suppose the economics would show that preventative policing is probably also more cost effective from a tax payers’ perspective. The only challenge is where do you draw the line as this could quickly affect civil liberties. It’s an interesting debate and one I’ve never really considered. Should the police be proactive or reactive enforcers of the law after things have gone wrong? Most people would probably prefer the former but such a role should be clearly defined.
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Thanks Frederick - a lot of what the police do is not law enforcement or fighting crime but instead it falls into greyer areas - some people see this as plugging the gaps left by a decline in provision of social care and mental health services. Here's a recent relevant article based on a night with police officers in Bedfordshire:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/17/britain-police-cuts-theresa-may
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This is an issue that governments have wrestled with for many years. As the nature of crime has changed - cybercrime has replaced bank robbers threatening branch staff with sawn-off shotguns! – so has the nature of policing and this is being reflected in the way police budgets are allocated. There are fewer ‘bobbies on the beat’ and more ‘bobbies on the computer’; this is sensible and more efficient. However, this also means that everyday crime such as burglary is deemed low profile and receives little attention.
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Thank you for those insights, an interesting aspect to cybercrime is that if you include it in crime figures, then the level of overall crime has risen not fallen.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/15/crime-rate-rise-cyber-offences
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One of the most cutting edge aspects to policing is the use of sophisticated software to try to identify crimes before they happen, or potential criminals. This raises all kinds of questions about liberty and civil rights issues which some people signal by referring to "pre-crime" - a reference to the Keanu Reeves Sci-fi Minority Report. Below is a link to a Guardian story on this:
Here's an extract from the same story:
The holy grail is ‘predictive policing’
“Soon it will be feasible and affordable for the government to record, store and analyze nearly everything we do,” writes law professor Elizabeth Joh in Harvard Law & Policy Review. “The police will rely on alerts generated by computer programs that sift through the massive quantities of available information for patterns of suspicious activity.”
The holy grail of data-fueled analytics is called “predictive policing”, which uses statistical models to tell officers where crime is likely to happen and who is likely to commit it.
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One possible development in the wake of cuts in resources is the role of volunteers in policing - so that some of the things that the police do can be carried out by those in the community - an example is on this link:
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Alongside responding to issues of pressing concern, one opportunity for the police to make efficiencies and improve policing is to work in closer partnership with communities and businesses. There are a great number of such schemes already in the high streets - for instance "pubwatch" is a scheme that shares information about antisocial behaviour so that being banned from one pub leads to bans in other pubs, shopwatch is similar. The app DISC (Database & Intranet for Safer Communities) is an extension and joining up of these schemes that enables information sharing across shops, pubs, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and a number of shopping centres.
http://www.professionalsecurity.co.uk/news/commercial-security/app-for-crime-reduction-partnerships/
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A significant amount of police work involves helping those with mental health problems. One initiative where the police have been a lead partner in a multi-agency approach has meant "access to relevant clinical advice early in an incident has not only reduced section 136 detentions month on month, but reduced officer deployments, diverted detentions and has saved lives."
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Here is an amusing and also enlightening account of (one version of) the realities of police work:
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Police priorities are a function of legislation but this does not always coincide with police or public perceptions of what should be a focus. This article illustrates one such area - smoking in cars. Few prosecutions have arisen but not simply because of competing deman - it is also because it requires cross agency collaboration.
It became illegal in England and Wales to smoke in a car or other vehicle with anyone under the age of 18 present from October 1 last year, with motorists or passengers facing a £50 penalty.
But figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests have suggested enforcement of the ban has been minimal.
The BBC reported in June that only three forces reported incidents in the first seven months, and all were dealt with by verbal warnings.
Jayne Willetts, lead on r oads policing for the Federation, said: " It's been really difficult for our members to enforce this law, because since the change of legislation police have still yet to be given the power to issue a fixed penalty notice (FPN).
You can read more about this at http://www.expressandstar.com/news/polls/2016/10/03/poll-should-smoking-in-cars-be-banned-full-stop/#iKpEoGRqdKy6F83L.99
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