General Policing Issues
Douglas
J Keil MBE QPM
General
Secretary
E-mail:
djkeil@scottishpolicefederation.org.uk
Mr
David Mellor QPM
Deputy
Chief Constable
Fife
Constabulary
Detroit
Road
Glenrothes
KY6
2RJ
Our
ref: DJK/V
17 January 2005
Dear
Sir
Effective
Use of Police Time and ‘Minor Crimes'
At
the Joint Central Committee meeting held last week I was asked to
write to you on this subject. I refer to recent media coverage of
what has been variously described as an ACPOS draft policy and a report
entitled ‘Beating Bureaucracy'. I suspect that the reporting has not
been wholly accurate or at least is not a full explanation of ACPOS
thinking or intention but nevertheless I want to express the Federation's
views on a number of related issues.
We
are concerned about reports of ACPOS considering non-attendance at
neighbour disputes and vandalisms etc. and at reports that some other
agency could deliver death messages.
The
Federation does not support community wardens or any other non-police
agency being deployed to deal with crimes or offences no matter how
minor they may appear to be. No doubt there is a role for community
wardens to deal with civic matters but not where crimes or offences
are concerned in our view. Wardens and the like do not have the experience,
training or protective equipment to engage with the public in relation
to crimes and offences. Even in relation to the relatively new arrangements
for noise nuisance, we believe the police will still be involved in
all but a handful of incidents.
We
are certain that the development of community wardens or the like
to a point where they deal with crimes and offences will lead to a
poor quality of policing on the cheap, a two-tier police force and
a serious diminution of police/public relationships. It is already
fairly clear from press reports that opposition politicians and media
editors are concerned about the reported plans and public letters
to editors indicate widespread public opposition.
2.
Removing
the police from public contact in these circumstances would be extremely
detrimental to an already less than perfect police/public relationship.
It would, despite the contention that extra officers would be made
available for street patrols, move the police further away from the
public at street level where the police/public relationship matters
most. At a time when the service is committed to intelligence-led
policing we believe these proposals would be detrimental to that.
The
Federation has campaigned for years for increased police numbers and
we believe that this is the only acceptable solution to the problem
of our resources being over-stretched by current demand. We feel sure
we would be successful in our campaign if ACPOS joined us. We are
also certain from public opinion polls and opposition politician comment
that there is a huge support for increasing police officer numbers
and we are at a loss to understand why members of ACPOS appear so
reluctant to join in those calls.
Yours
sincerely
General
Secretary
