Police reforms could threaten public safety, warns senior officer

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, says reforms ‘run risk of compromising safety of citizens for reasons of expediency’ One of Britain’s top police officers has warned that the government’s police reform programme, combined with spending cuts, risks compromising public safety. Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), warned that if the introduction of elected police commissioners, the creation of a national crime agency and other changes were mismanaged they risked undermining the historic British tradition of policing. Orde told the Acpo summer conference meeting in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on Monday that the “service of last resort” faced a period of “changes to accountability, changes to central structures and changes to pay and conditions, which, if mismanaged, could threaten the impartial model of policing that has existed for 180 years and is revered around the world”. He said: “We understand the government’s determination to deliver a substantial programme of reforms across the public sector, but we cannot afford to get policing wrong and, unless greater clarity emerges in the very near future, I fear we run the risk of compromising the safety of citizens for reasons of expediency.” He said the public sector was facing its most challenging times in living memory: “In short, we have a change programme that, at one end, will produce some of the most radical changes to police governance since 1829 and, at the other, will without question reduce police and staff numbers and pay.” Orde earlier told the BBC that concerns centred on the “loose ends where we lack clarity”. He explained that at the same time that police pay reforms were being negotiated, the national police improvement agency, which delivers all the IT and police training, was being dismantled and a national crime agency was being proposed but not even draft legislation had yet been produced. “So bring that all together and add a new accountability structure currently making its way through the House of Lords and what you see is a very confused policing landscape that needs to be cleared up before we can move on.” The home secretary, Theresa May, is due to address the Acpo conference later and is expected to defend the government’s police reform programme and drive to find savings in the police service. The £11bn annual Whitehall grant to police forces is due to be cut by 20% by 2014-15. However, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said May would be deeply unwise not to heed such a serious warning from one of Britain’s top police officers. She said: “David Cameron and Theresa May are taking big risks on law and order. Hugh Orde is right to point out that the home secretary is reducing police numbers and police powers but increasing the risk of politicisation. “This endangers the centuries-old tradition of impartiality as well as the effectiveness of the police and it is communities that will pay the price.” Police Public services policy Alan Travis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.