HM Inspector of Constabulary calls for policing “rethink”

Speaking at a conference organised by Reliance Security, Denis O’Connor – Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary for the Midlands and Wales – urged the necessity for an “immediate and radical rethink” on policing at a time when budget constraints mean that the police service needs to find new initiatives to help combat crime.

O’Connor has recently completed a report on behalf of the Government that is widely expected to lead to a reduction in the country’s 43 police forces, and thereafter the establishment of specialised divisions aimed squarely at tackling national-scale problems including organised crime and the terrorist threat.

“Society is changing,” said O’Connor. “The criminality issues and threats to security we will all face in five years’ time will not be the same as they are today. That being the case, the police service and other agencies, including the private security industry, must work together to address the new challenges as and when they arise. We have to stretch what resources we have to keep pace with change.”

O’Connor used the event in Derby to emphasise that the neighbourhood – and, in particular, neighbourhood policing – must be at the heart of modern policing.

“In this era,” stated O’Connor, “neighbourhood security is national security. If the police know what is going on and the community is willing to talk to them, then that’s the best immunisation system against organised crime and terrorism that we could hope for.

“If the top tiers of the police service can organise themselves to work smartly, then they can react well to what happens in neighbourhoods. This represents intelligence from the bottom up, and gives everyone at every level the opportunity to make a tangible and genuine difference.”

Delegates at the event – including senior police officers and other stakeholders in the East Midlands crime prevention community – heard how various branches of the police are already broadening their remit.

Chief superintendent Richard Johnson – who sits on the National Executive of the Police Superintendents’ Association for England and Wales – said: “Policing now requires a fresh approach. My officers currently undertake a host of work, such as accompanying prisoners to hospital, that could just as well be done by private security officers.

“We simply must be looking to ‘civilianise’ tasks wherever and whenever we can so that we might free-up police officers to do what they were trained for, and what they are best at.”