The future workmix of the police

The Police Federation has warned against the increasing number of police staff taking on more responsibilities, saying that the changes will damage workforce diversity and relationships with the community and urging “open and thorough discussions” to ascertain how the matter will progress.

Publishing its report Building a Police Workforce for the Future: The need to scrutinise changes to the workforce mix, the Police Federation states that in 2009 the average ratio of police officers to police staff was 1.4 to one, up from 2.3 to one in 2000. Nationally, there has been a 16 per cent increase in police officers since 2000, but an 80 per cent increase in police staff; South Yorkshire Police in particular has seen a five percent drop in officer numbers against a 76 percent increase in staff.

The Police Federation said there is a real danger that some of the changes in the workforce mix will lead to a “fundamental transformation of the approach to policing in the UK”.

Role of PCSOs

The fear is that as Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and police staff take on more responsibility, the “confrontational” work they do not have the power to carry out will increasingly be the responsibility of police officers, which the Police Federation worries will damage relationships with the community and the public perception of police officers.

“PCSOs will encounter situations they are not equipped to handle. In such instances they will need to call on the service of a police officer if an arrest is required, drawing on resources engaged elsewhere and having a potentially negative impact on resilience. We fear that if officers ultimately only perform roles that require warranted powers this will largely consist of tasks that entail conflict with members of the public,” the report states.

The Police Federation argues that the business case for this change in the workforce mix has “neither been made effectively, still less has it been proven convincingly”. They believe it damages the diversity of the workforce that is supposed to reflect the community it serves and says it encourages a white, male police service.

“We have already seen evidence of an increased threat of employment tribunals within the pilot forces in the Workforce Modernisation Programme. If our fears prove to be accurate, the profile of warranted officers may actually become less diverse and more white and male than at present and we will drift further away from the goal of police officers reflecting the make-up of the public they serve,” the report states.

The mix of standard and discretionary powers given to police staff can be confusing and misleading for members of the public, the Police Federation claims.

Calls for further discussion

The Police Federation called on the Home Office, the Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to have an “open and thorough discussion with staff associations to ascertain: the full range of police staff roles in existence throughout England and Wales; whether civilianising tasks that do not require warranted powers has a negative impact on police officer diversity; whether specific staff roles have a positive impact on performance or public satisfaction and whether that impact provides better value for money to the public than the equivalent cost of police officer.

Paul McKeever, Chairman, Police Federation of England and Wales said: “It seems clear that for all the platitudes on restoring public confidence in the police, promises to keep police officer numbers high may be nothing more a game of smoke and mirrors.

“I find it alarming that there is no tangible evidence that even suggests, let alone proves, the value brought by civilianising increasing numbers of police posts. At a time of financial restraint across the public sector, a rise in police staff numbers is absolute nonsense when the public want more police officers on the beat. Instead we have more increasing numbers of unaccountable, unidentifiable police staff who do not have the flexibility or resilience to give what is needed as an emergency service.

“We have a new government; we have a new Parliament. Now is the time to stop this uncoordinated and ill-constructed plan that will destroy the police service in England and Wales; to implement a full independent review and to have the courage to ask the public what they actually want and expect from their police service.”

In 2001, the Home Office published a research paper, Diary of a Police Officer. The report concluded that an average of 17 per cent of the average police officer’s shift was spent out of the station on patrol. In March 2010, in response to a parliamentary question, the Home Office stated that time spent on patrol by police officers in 2003-2004 was 14.2 per cent and in 2007-2008 was 13.8 per cent.

Workforce resilience in question

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) acknowledges few forces have shown any interest in a tool they produced to help test workforce resilience under a range of scenarios.

“It is hard to understand why forces would ignore this tool unless they were concerned about what they might discover. However, this is not a consideration that can be ignored any longer. It will be extremely unfortunate if we have to wait until the service reaches breaking point before we give this issue the consideration it merits,” the report states.

An NPIA spokesperson told Police Professional: “Forces need to understand the potential impact of any change in the police workforce, whether that be skills, mix or establishment.

“The NPIA resilience indicator tool is designed to support chief officers in determining their force's resilience by providing a guide as to how their workforce can cope with a number of critical and major incidents of differing scales occurring simultaneously. The tool also includes the ability for forces to design their own scenarios which could be used as a starting point to determine day-to-day resilience.”

Admin, community support and forensic investigation

ACPO lead on workforce development Chief Constable Peter Fahy said: “Over recent years policing, like all public services, has seen a significant increase in spending and in staff numbers. Most police forces have invested in staff that can take the administrative burden off police officers and carry out tasks which don’t need the powers of a police officer. We have also seen the introduction of Community Support Officers, more crime scene investigators as forensic science has developed; more call centre staff with the growth of calls from the public and more analysts and data in-putters as forces have gathered more information on vulnerable people and on offenders.

“The resilience of policing comes from the teamwork of police officers and a host of other roles. The public is now better protected and we have seen significant reductions in crime. Police officers are better trained and better prepared to deal with unexpected and unplanned events.

“The police service is now entering what will be a very difficult period given the financial situation and will be looking very closely at every aspect of spending including the best mix of staff, best use of overtime and how continue to protect and serve the general public.”

[By Gemma Ilston, policeprofessional.com]