Police officers should commute in uniforms, suggests thinktank

Policy Exchange says move would reassure public, but police organisation dismisses idea as dangerous and impractical Police officers should wear their uniforms to and from work to help reassure the public, a leading right-of-centre thinktank has said. Policy Exchange, which has links with leading Conservatives, suggested the move would be the equivalent of having 12,000 officers on the streets. But the idea could put police officers and their families in danger and would be impractical, said the Police Federation , which represents rank-and-file officers in England and Wales. It said the thinktank’s idea did not take into consideration the risks to officers as they left their homes. In a report , Policy Exchange thinktank suggested millions of pounds could be saved if more civilian staff did back-office work currently performed by more expensively trained officers. Blair Gibbs, head of crime and justice at Policy Exchange, told the BBC’s Today programme at least £500m had been spent since 2006 in extra employment costs for 7,000 police officers who were not currently in policing roles. “It is vital that forces look at the use of officers and make sure they are deployed properly,” he said. “There remains a clear gap between additional police resources and the service delivered. As far as the public are concerned, the unprecedented expansion in officer numbers since 2001 may as well never have happened.” Peter Fahy, head of workforce development at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said paying civilians to do more work was politically sensitive because it would mean fewer officers. “It is crucially important the police officers are used in roles which require their expertise, powers and experience,” he said. “That said, this doesn’t just apply to the frontline, there are many office-based jobs where police officers are required, including handling intelligence, delivering training, or processing offenders through the criminal justice system.” The idea of officers wearing their uniforms on the way to work was “a bit of a red herring”, he said. “Most officers travel to work now in cars, I’m not sure how many of the public would see it. If you’re an officer and you’re trying to deal with an incident, even on a bus or a tube [when] you’re on your way to work and you don’t have your radio and protective equipment, then that is an issue. Our officers already make huge numbers of off-duty arrests. There is an obligation on every police officer, on duty or off duty, to intervene if they see something.” The Policy Exchange report, Cost of the Cops: Manpower and deployment in policing, said police forces in England and Wales wasted almost £150m a year because one in 20 officers did roles that could be performed by civilians. The report found that since 2000, funding for the police in England and Wales had risen by 25% in real terms. In 2010, the average household paid £614 per year for policing, up from £395 in 2001. It suggested forces should consider single patrols, rather than officers working in pairs. Police Thinktanks Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 5, 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.