Mr Reform to spearhead police reform

"IN THE WHOLE OF 2006, EACH POLICE OFFICER IN ENGLAND AND WALES WILL MAKE, ON AVERAGE, JUST NINE AND A HALF ARRESTS.

The police are the last great unreformed public service.  We shouldn't treat them with kid gloves just because officers do a brave job: we need radical police reform to help cut crime."

Of all the pledges that appeared in yesterday's full-page Tory advertisement the above pledge on policing probably provides most reassurance to traditional Tories.  If some doubt Mr Cameron's willingness to take difficult, crunchy decisions he seems to be heading in a courageous direction on police reform.  The appointment of Nick Herbert MP to the position of Shadow Minister for Police Reform is a further sign of his determination on this issue.  Mr Herbert was a supporter of David Davis and helped to design Mr Davis' growth-rule-based tax cutting strategy.  Before entering Parliament last May he was founder director of the radical think tank, Reform. 

A Telegraph leader has welcomed the commitment today.  After noting "dismay at the abandonment of the "patient's passport"" and an "ominous silence on the subject of tax cuts" it says this of police reform:

"The solution lies in the restructuring, local accountability and integration in communities for the police that this newspaper has consistently advocated. Only then might we once again have police forces that are regarded neither as maverick bullies by the poor, nor as limp paper tigers by middle-class householders, but who earn and benefit from the confidence of the whole public.  That is the sort of concrete goal to which the Tory party should aspire in all policy areas, instead of shooting blindly at worthy but vague concepts, as New Labour always has. Mr Cameron has only begun to hint at the capacity for such focused thinking. He must now demonstrate it across the board."

Mr Cameron's commitment to police reform comes a few days after data from New York shows that its Giuliani-era reforms have delivered the seventeenth successive year of falling crime.  It can be done.

Comments

[Richard]

Perhaps they can start by repealing the bureaucracy-inducing 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act and putting an end to these pointless "diversity seminars" that the police have to attend instead of arresting people.

The Tories should also propose to sack any policemen who waste their time threatening people for daring to oppose gay adoption.

[Andy Peterkin]

The reinstitution of proper foot/bicycle patrols would also be welcome.

[James Maskell]

I dont know if anyone here knows about the mini-moto mess that Labour has created. In short, mini motos are only legally allowed to be riden on private land, not parks, roads or pavements. The police though have been told that if ever it gets to the situation that a person on a mini moto rides away from a policeman, the policeman mustnt give chase in case the person falls off the bike. These bikes are 2 ft high and go up to 40 miles an hour. Absolutely ridiculous. Those things are incredibly dangerous and the police are unable to do anything about them.

[Tim Aker]

MacPherson destroyed police morale and Cameron needs to stand firm against the political liberalisation of the police force. But, given his touchy-feelyness and his posturing to the liberal elites, i don't hold out much hope.

[Richard Weatherill]

Is there actually a Minister for Police Reform in the Government? If not, who is Nick Herbert supposed to be 'shadowing'? It's all rather remeniscent of our local panto - Peter Pan.

[Chris Palmer]

We can start by calling it a "Police Force" and not a "Police Service."

[Selsdon Man]

We should offer franchises to competing private police companies - e.g. Peelers PLC.

[john Skinner]

I'm a Cameron supporter, but I must confess doubts about his aim to "reform" the police service. Is it simply going to be about pushing more officers onto the streets and reducing their paperwork? Well that would be a start, but he has got to support officers in carrying out their duties in the face of intimidation from special interest groups. I'd like to know, for instance, what Cameron thinks of the existence of the Black Police Officer's Association - a self-serving group that exists to advance the careers of members and defend members on disciplinery charges. As many people have pointed out, what would be the reaction to a proposal to form a White Police Officer's Association?
I could say a lot more about our expectations of the police, but for the moment I'd like to suggest another possibility for creating a more orderly and crime-free environment.
Instead of advertising beaurocratic non jobs in The Guardian, the Government should make an effort to create real jobs, like bus conductors, park keepers, live-in porters/concierges for tower blocks. Low-level misbehaviour needs to be dealt with relentlessly by local "jobsworths" who can count on support by local police officers.
New York has made extraordinary progress in reducing crime. We can learn a lot from them.

[Derek]

One useful policy would be to abolish the Equality Commission and other similar quangos. Let's have everyone equal under the law, and start tackling the breakdown in our inner cities. We need more prisons, and much stricter regimes with real programmes to reform the prisoners, prevent drugs, and at the same time make prison a real deterrent. If the police saw these reforms it would do their moral a power of good.

Crime and punishment is a massive area which desperately needs tackling. However it is not for the fainthearted, and it might allow our opponents to call us "nasty", but I'm still up for it.

[BRILAND]

Punchy politics,We all sat up and listened but the truth is a modern police officers role is of course about more than arrests.If you strip away all the tasks of caring for people in their needs when other departments who should be dealing havent got anyone available. IE E.D.T. and alike then more hours would be available to patrol. Police officers on shift duties are constantly directed relentlesly from job to job of which there is a ceasless tide on a computer list of real people waiting to see an officer for the problem important to themselves. If we talk about arrests then why attend any job where there is little likleyhood of an arrest or other process. Where do we measure performance. What about specialist roles S.O.L.O.s (sexual offence liason officers) Scenes of crime officers, and so on, etc. I am disappointed by MR CAMERONS comments and see them as headline grabbers.