Policing
Under reconstruction
Policing and Community Safety
There are 43 police forces in England and Wales, 8 in Scotland and one covering Northern Ireland. Each one of these services is linked to the delivery of crime prevention and crime reduction, in addition to the core duties of enforcing the law and 'maintaining the peace'.
Until the early 1990's crime prevention and community safety was generally seen as the exclusive province of the police service and after almost 2 decades of developing partnership work the Police Services of England and Wales are now closely integrated into a structure which is aimed at sharing the duties and responsibilities for this area of work across a broad spectrum of organisations in a structured and systematic way (see CDRP Reform).
Effective and efficient policing is a top policy priority for all major political parties. The developed and developing policies tie crime prevention and crime reduction and policing policy and practice together and make police planning and community safety planning part of the same range of activities. This page provides links to UK policing services and policing policy.
Policing and the police continues to be a keen subject for political debate. This is linked to both the crime reduction agenda in a general sense and also to a more specific (but some might say symbolic) agenda linked to UK institutional reform (the police and bureaucracy, risk aversion, citizen focus etc). The Review of Policing (Flanagan Review) was commissioned by the Home Office to look at these issues.
Policing and Social Responsibility Act 2011
The Policing & Social Responsibility Act 2011 covers five distinct policy areas: police accountability and governance; alcohol licensing; the regulation of protests around Parliament Square; misuse of drugs; and the issue of arrest warrants in respect of private prosecutions for universal jurisdiction offences.
Key areas
The Act:
- Replaces
police authorities with directly elected Police and
Crime Commissioners, with the aim of improving police accountability
- Amends and supplements the Licensing Act 2003 with the intention of ‘rebalancing’ it in favour of local authorities, the police and local communities
- Sets out a new framework for regulating protests around Parliament Square. Relevant sections of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 would be repealed and the police would be given new powers to prevent encampments and the use of amplified noise equipment
- Enables the Home Secretary to temporarily ban drugs for up to a year, and removes the statutory requirement for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to include members with experience in specified activities
- Introduces a new requirement for private prosecutors to obtain the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions prior to the issue of an arrest warrant for ‘universal jurisdiction’ offences such as war crimes or torture. The Government's aim in introducing this change is to prevent the courts being used for political purposes.
Neighbourhood Policing and Multi Agency Tasking
The development of the 'extended policing family' of Neighbourhhood Wardens and Police Community Support Officers has provided a uniform presence - reassurance - and also a body of women and men who can be deployed in the community to undertake to more 'social' forms of policing which have been in demand in the UK for some years. At the end of April 2007 there were over 16,000 PCSOs in England and Wales.Increasing Police Public Order Powers: |
The general enthusiasm for Neighbourhood Policing and Ward based Safer Neighbourhoods Team in London has inevitably triggered concern that expectations of police responsiveness and solution to crime and disorder are too great.
There is also a background concern that the new way of working may fundamentally change the tripartite system of governance; not just injecting a local focus but also a new dimension to the governance of police services. That issue will probably be dealt with via the Flanagan Policing Review.
However, the new locally focussed policing initiatives are viewed by many as the most positive development in policing for generations.
Crime reduction is seen to work when it is linked to local priorities and real reductions in those sensitive concerns; when neighbourhood based community safety/policing are underpinned by the achievement of locally identified priorities.
There are a number of models for the development of police services. These models are locally developed and delivered and locally responsive. They have yet to take a universal form although there are fairly widely accepted neighbourhood policing formulas with increasing importance given to the provision of multi agency crime and disorder reduction services.
Recent research (Neighbourhood Policing: The impact of piloting and early national implementation) shows international evidence that neighbourhood policing’s prospects for success are promising in terms of reducing crime and improving public perceptions, particularly when it involves the public’s participation in both priority setting and problem-solving.
For more links and information see the Community and Neighbourhood Policing and the Policy and Reform sub pages.
The Extended Policing Family (PCSO's and Wardens)
The development of Neighbourhood Policing is very much dependent on the availability of police resources to both provide for the effective undertaking of core policing functions whilst also undertaking the more general labour intensive work of community reassurance and order maintenance.
The initial establishment of the wardens services to work on providing patrolling reassurance and environmental enforcement - now almost exclusively funded by local authorities - was gnerally welcomed on the wave of more effective ways of tackling anit social behaviour.
However, the establishment of Police Community Support Officers (PCSO's) have had a mixed reception - often characterised as 'Bobbies on the Cheap' - with a restricted role and limited powers and limited training.
There is little doubt though that PCSO's provide the key resource for enabling the continuation of the current resource allocation practices of police services up and down the country and they are also a favoured product of the current government (see Summary of the Findings of the PCSO Evaluation Report - January 2006).
PCSO's
In May 2007 the Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers carried out an audit of PCSO powers. The responses were collated into the matrix of powers designated on PCSOs by force area.
The matrix also highlighted the responses in relation to those powers that are standard for all PCSOs under the Police and Justice Act 2006 provisions. On 1 December 2007 the UK parliament approved Order (SI2007/3202) introducing standard powers and duties for PCSOs came into force.
The list of powers for PCSOs sets out both the standard powers that apply to all PCSOs and the remaining “non-standard” or discretionary powers that may be designated by Chief Officers. Further information on the standard powers can be found in the Home Office Circular 33/2007.
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Policing Service Links
The website for the Scottish Police services
Police Service of Northern Ireland
Website of the single Northern Ireland Police Service
Homepage of the UK national police service for the railways in Great Britain. Provides information on regional contacts and BTP policy on policing sporting events.
SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency)
SOCA is the UK government agency responsible for dealing with financial information concerning suspected proceeds of crime in order to counter money laundering.
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Policing Practice Links
Police Custody Expectations
This
document has been produced jointly by HMIC and the Prisons Inspectorate
and sets out criteria for assessing the treatment and conditions for
detainees in police custody to encourage best practice.
Police and Racism: What has been achieved 10 years after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report?
This publication from the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission considers what progress the police service has made in terms of race equality in the 10 years since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.
The National Police Improvement Agency is a new organsiation aimed at supporting the UK police service by providing expertise in areas as diverse as information and communications technology, support to information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change and recruiting, developing and deploying people.
Police Performance Assessments
This publication describes police performance in forces across England and Wales over the last year. The assessments provide a view on the effectiveness of key policing services and whether they have improved or not.
UK POLICE DATA QUALITY 2006-07
This report presents the overall results for each police authority on data quality and corporate arrangements, and direction of travel assessments for management arrangements and crime data quality. It includes some case studies drawn from police authorities that have performed well or strongly.
National Intelligence Model Document
The National Intelligence Model (NIM) is at the core of investigative theory and practice and provides the framework for gathering and using intelligence, and driving strategy in all areas.
Practical Guidance to Performance Management for Police Team Leaders
A summary of the main guidance aimed at those who directly control and supervise a single team but a very useful handbook for any manager of a frontline team.
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Policing ~ International Links
Europol is the European Union law enforcement organisation that handles criminal intelligence. Its aim is to improve the effectiveness and co-operation between the competent authorities of the Member States in preventing and combating serious international organised crime.
Interpol's aim is to provide a unique range of essential services for the law enforcement community 'to optimise the international effort to combat crime'.
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