General Policing Issues

Address by the General Secretary to The Conservative Party Conference

Ayr Race Course, 23 May 2008

 

Chairman, Delegates,

 

Thank you very much for inviting me to your Conference, I'm both happy and privileged to take this opportunity to address you.

 

Of course, I do it with more than a little trepidation, - as an apolitical organisation, I'm only too well aware that words or sentiments can be taken out of context and have a political connotation applied. It's better then that I set off on safe ground.

 

I was saying to Bill, that as I came into Conference this morning, there was a palpable sense of celebration in the air coupled with a sense of great expectation.

 

The penny dropped for me when I remembered that your team had won last night and while the game wasn't played on home ground you are rightly proud of your team and look forward to next seasons games with renewed vigour and here I thought all eyes were on Dundee and Aberdeen .

 

Chairman, this morning's subject is safer communities and firstly I must say that's precisely what our communities are. Safer than they were 5 years ago and safer than many if not most countries in the world.

 

Relatively speaking, we are safer than Myanmar where a Government denies the awful plight of its people. Safer than South Africa where senseless and murderous violence is taking place on refugees and immigrants. Safer than Zimbabwe where the police are violently suppressing human rights and safer than our near neighbours where gun and gang violence has rocked peoples sensibilities.

 

But, that is not to say that we together don't have a job to do. We do. It is to say that when Parliament, Public and Police work together to reconfigure the policing experience of our communities then we can rise to the continuing challenge to achieve safer and more secure communities. So what are the challenges in Scotland ?

 

Without a doubt they are several and principal amongst them are the age old problems of alcohol and drugs. We here, know that alcohol is increasingly playing a defining part in too many peoples lives, particularly our young people.

 

We are drinking from an earlier age and we are drinking far too much. The effects of that are increased anti social behaviour and violence, less attendance in education and more pressure on our health services.

 

Imagine for a moment a similar conference somewhere else in the world where a policeman is reciting to the assembled, how safe his country's peoples are in relative terms. He may well be using the example we gave to the world of last weeks football match in Manchester to point a finger to us. What we exported in those scenes was a damning picture of Scotland , drunkenness and now violence again added to the stereotype.

 

So we clearly do have problems to address. More children and young people being admitted to Accident and Emergency Units . More young people criminalised and more people heading for chronic health and negative social effects as this generation ages. I must and I do recognise your leaders emphasis on drugs and the focus now on abstinence and recovery which puts it well up the Scottish political agenda and into delivery. The urgent need for which was underscored by Professor McKeganey this morning.

 

We know that It's hard to maintain a community's cohesion if every weekend (and sometimes well into the week) a growing minority are out of their face on cheap alcohol and drugs, causing mayhem to the overwhelming majority of good people.

 

So the aim to achieve safer communities is the right direction for all of our energies.

 

In Scotland , you have a world class police service and the women and men who on a daily basis give themselves to policing are the finest anywhere in the world.

 

I underwrite that with several examples, in Glasgow city centre a three-month trial called “Nite Zone”, where extra officers patrolled the streets and the taxi ranks, resulted in a 19% cut in violent crime.

 

In Aberdeen it has been reported that massive crime reductions had been achieved by increasing police patrols in the area just south of Aberdeen . A 43% reduction in vandalism and a 23% drop in incidents of youth disturbance were just two of the results. An local commentator said and I quote, “this clearly proves the success of putting bobbies on the beat.”

 

In Mid Calder. There should have been a certain amount of police officers in Mid Calder at all times – I won't say how many – but for a significant period of time before the policing operation, I can tell you those officers were rarely seen there and almost never in full strength.

 

They were covering shortages elsewhere and Mid Calder was policed from Livingston . That anti-social behaviour problem, like every other anti-social behaviour problem, developed in the absence of adequate policing.

 

When the decision was taken to deal with the problem, the missing officers re-appeared and during this period Mid Calder was adequately policed and Policing solved the acute problem of anti social behaviour.

 

Again in Glasgow , Operation Tag was designed to reduce violent crime. They put more police officers on the street, on foot, in cars, on bikes and in plain clothes. They reduced incidents by 17.1%.

 

When we in the Federation, surveyed police officers, they told us;

 

82% told us, there were “too few” or “far too few” police officers in their area. When we asked, “What could the Federation best do for you?” they didn't say more pay or more holidays or anything of that sort, what they said was, “ Get more police officers”.

This coincided with what we understood our public were beginning to ask themselves. Why?, if the police can sort out these problems, why can't they prevent them from happening in the first place? Where are the police when the problems are developing?

 

 

Well part of the answer is that the calls for police services are almost overwhelming. On top of the day to day one off calls for help, we have major matters to attend to. New terrorism related duties, sex offenders and legislative requirements use up vast numbers of officers.

 

We are very good at policing major incidents. We are very good at responding to murders and kidnappings and the demands of new legislation. But it's the day to day response policing that is the problem – all too often we don't get to calls quick enough and we don't have enough time to make quality enquiries.

 

Calls for extra cops are not just about more officers on the streets either. Schools, hospitals, buses and other places, all want dedicated police officers. They all know that policing works and they are prepared to pay for it. At first sight this might seem ok. But surely beyond any other service, the police service should not be dependent on ability to pay. Safety and security is the first duty of Parliament and everybody has the right to have an efficient and effective police service to call upon. This is precisely why we supported your Manifesto pledge to provide 1500 additional police officers.

 

Of course for long and weary we are all told that this is not simply about numbers. But from the public point of view, if you can't get the police when you need them, it is that simple. If you are a police officer who cannot get assistance when you need it, it is that simple

 

The link between the public and the police begins and ends on the street and every other aspect of policing depends on that street level relationship. We must police sex offenders and terrorism and we will always need specialist squads and units, but we must re-focus on street policing. Not just visibility, but do-ability. Actively listening to communities to identify their priorities, then doing what communities tell us is important for them, and being big enough as organizations to feed back the results of police activity together with those from roads, housing, health and social services being just as responsive and just as open to scrutiny.

Gosh, that last bit sounded like an apolitical broadcast on behalf of the police service, but it wasn't. It was a true reflection of where police services are going and of work underway.

 

What has been of fundamental help in that reconfiguration and will continue to be so, is the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament.

THE Committee of this Parliament has been that chaired by Bill Aitken and the cross party support engendered and arrived at has been, for me, a phenomenon.

 

Their first enquiry into:

 

The Effective Use of Police Resources, ensured that this committee in a relatively short time grasped the major issues facing the police in Scotland . The police is a large and complex organisation and while the Committee did not reach definitive conclusions on all issues it achieved a very good understanding of the general situation and identified where more work was required.

 

The Committee's conclusion was that police resources were at that time inadequate to allow forces to effectively meet the commitments. The Committee called for more resources to be allocated in the budget for police recruitment, and the subsequent budget amendments that went to Parliament ensures precisely that, with now 1000 additional police officers to be recruited in Scotland . So my thanks go, once again, to Bill Aitken for your Committees huge influence in delivering that.

 

There is more, and beyond that the Committee recommended a fundamental and independent review of police roles and responsibilities. As we have often said, policing is such a complex business it is difficult to succinctly describe. From major crime investigation to road traffic policing and from community based policing to helicopter patrols, it encompasses a vast range of duties and responsibilities.

 

“Safety and security”, “protect and serve”, “guard, patrol and watch” are all phrases often used to describe the functions of the police, but none of them fully encompasses the breadth of roles and responsibilities attached to us. Perhaps no neatly packaged phrase ever could.

 

‘Community Policing' currently means different things to different people, even within the police service. Everyone from Sir Robert Peel to current day American police chiefs and academics have been credited with being the originator of ‘community policing'. I don't care where the credit falls, but I do care deeply that we are delivering what communities identify as their needs. In our look across Scotland and elsewhere we are satisfied that much of the good things which need to happen with policing for communities is already happening. We perhaps don't have the best and consistent packaging for it, but the good works are being done. We perhaps don't have the best resourcing for it, but there is evidence up and down this country of a renewed focus to do tha t.

 

So my assessment of the aim to achieve safer communities is that this can be realised. With true partnership in communities, with do-ability improved in the police service and by existing partners in public service being accountable for their part in keeping communities safer, we will move in great strides over the next 5 years to do precisely that.

 

Thank you