Inspector Gadget-Nail and head
Discussion
While many like to moan and crticise (including me), I'm going to post Gadget's current blog. Many my not agree, but this is FACT. I'm sick of hearing Cameron and May tell us how cuts won't affect the front line, how there is no more money (despite billions extra for benefits, 'aid' etc, etc). Politicians either have no idea, or the LIE (why do I think it's the latter)
Policing Through The Looking Glass
February 13, 2012 by inspectorgadget
Our new policing model does not work.
It was never going to of course, but a little honesty would have been nice.
Instead, for reasons best known to themselves, our ‘very senior officers’ are busy telling everyone that everything is a great success. The top brass at Gloucestershire and Manchester have come clean; we have not.
There are four major policing issues here in Ruralshire. I suspect it is the same elsewhere in Britain.
First, the police authority has decided that we need to lose over a third of our productive workforce. I cannot give you the actual figures because it would identify my force, but it is eye-watering. Many police officers have now been moved to the so-called back office to carry out key functions in custody, front counter, the control room and administration.
Second, and rather unconnected I feel, the whole force has been re-structured to create the deepest silo mentality I have ever witnessed. Even Response was given a ‘remit’. This was very quickly ditched by ‘stealth’ back to our original role of course, only this time with a third the number of staff. Every other department except neighbourhood has suffered losses, but again, the workload has stayed the same. The ‘workload’ is human victims in our case, not baked beans or widgets. There have been no new recruits for a couple of years now, and the retirement figures have increased as staff ‘get out’ with a decent pension while they still can.
Third, our so-called partner agencies have all seen huge cuts to their budgets. This has defeated the whole principle behind our force re-structure; the idea that we can stop doing things we shouldn’t be doing and focus on crime prevention because the other statutory organisations have a legal duty to pick up their own work. This theory was always fanciful of course, and has proved to be a disaster. The other agencies do not provide a comprehensive 24/7 service. Many of their staff are a Tory wet-dream. A mix of agency and cheap foreign labour on minimum wage. Some cannot understand what is going on around them and some don’t care. Poor wages, bad conditions, continual broken promises and being made to make decisions and take responsibility for issues far above any training of experience have seen to that.
Finally, as if these three issues are not enough, the very people who hold society together while all of this takes place, (police officers) are facing all the cuts and restraints that everyone else is facing in addition to extraordinary attacks on pay and conditions. Probably even worse that this in terms of productivity, is the constant drip-feeding of government backed media inspired stories about how bad the police are in this country. We can’t be trusted with TASER, but then we are criticised when we use physical force. A criminal who stabs an officer four times has his sentence reduced. We have no proper riot equipment but we are blamed for riots. The list is endless.
Despite predictable increases in expenditure on wars, the Olympics, MP’s salaries and expenses (up by something like £40 million) , foreign aid to nations who don’t even seem to want it and huge golden handshakes to public sector executives who leave their jobs, we are asked to believe that ‘there is no more money’. We are expected to fear that without all this we would be like Greece.
This may be true. But here is a thing; if it is true, why do our Chief Officers keep pretending that we can provide the same service under these conditions? I have no desire for promotion. I will not be going to the Lords. If I am awarded a QPM it is likely to be for something I do on the street, not at the 9th hole. I can say it and here it is:
The policing service we are able to deliver at the moment in Ruralshire is bobbins. As a frontline Inspector, I spend most of my day shifts apologising to people for how rubbish we are. The emergency service is dangerously compromised, the crime investigation effort is almost solely focussed on detecting minor infringements and has been largely handed over to inexperienced neighbourhood patrol officers, the control room is shockingly bad and forensics, custody, front counter, transport and personnel have all virtually ceased to exist.
Communication equipment has been withdrawn, you can’t get a police dog for a track, the cars are falling apart (remember, we are expected to respond at speeds of up to 100 mph, the cars need to be spot-on) and there never seems to be a night duty CID capacity. Worse still, there are no probationers to make the tea.
This post is not about the reasons for this state of affairs. It is about the fact that we are lying about it. If all this is really is necessary for the economic survival of the nation, then politicians and very senior officers can tell the truth about it because everyone will understand. So why do we lie? I simply cannot understand this.
Gadget Note: Readers will be pleased to note that the Diversity Training Department (and remember this is Ruralshire, not inner-city London) have escaped any cuts and are still busy promoting Gypsy Culture Week, teaching us about Mary Seacole and organising the annual LGBT dance. Priorities folks. That’s what we like to see.
Policing Through The Looking Glass
February 13, 2012 by inspectorgadget
Our new policing model does not work.
It was never going to of course, but a little honesty would have been nice.
Instead, for reasons best known to themselves, our ‘very senior officers’ are busy telling everyone that everything is a great success. The top brass at Gloucestershire and Manchester have come clean; we have not.
There are four major policing issues here in Ruralshire. I suspect it is the same elsewhere in Britain.
First, the police authority has decided that we need to lose over a third of our productive workforce. I cannot give you the actual figures because it would identify my force, but it is eye-watering. Many police officers have now been moved to the so-called back office to carry out key functions in custody, front counter, the control room and administration.
Second, and rather unconnected I feel, the whole force has been re-structured to create the deepest silo mentality I have ever witnessed. Even Response was given a ‘remit’. This was very quickly ditched by ‘stealth’ back to our original role of course, only this time with a third the number of staff. Every other department except neighbourhood has suffered losses, but again, the workload has stayed the same. The ‘workload’ is human victims in our case, not baked beans or widgets. There have been no new recruits for a couple of years now, and the retirement figures have increased as staff ‘get out’ with a decent pension while they still can.
Third, our so-called partner agencies have all seen huge cuts to their budgets. This has defeated the whole principle behind our force re-structure; the idea that we can stop doing things we shouldn’t be doing and focus on crime prevention because the other statutory organisations have a legal duty to pick up their own work. This theory was always fanciful of course, and has proved to be a disaster. The other agencies do not provide a comprehensive 24/7 service. Many of their staff are a Tory wet-dream. A mix of agency and cheap foreign labour on minimum wage. Some cannot understand what is going on around them and some don’t care. Poor wages, bad conditions, continual broken promises and being made to make decisions and take responsibility for issues far above any training of experience have seen to that.
Finally, as if these three issues are not enough, the very people who hold society together while all of this takes place, (police officers) are facing all the cuts and restraints that everyone else is facing in addition to extraordinary attacks on pay and conditions. Probably even worse that this in terms of productivity, is the constant drip-feeding of government backed media inspired stories about how bad the police are in this country. We can’t be trusted with TASER, but then we are criticised when we use physical force. A criminal who stabs an officer four times has his sentence reduced. We have no proper riot equipment but we are blamed for riots. The list is endless.
Despite predictable increases in expenditure on wars, the Olympics, MP’s salaries and expenses (up by something like £40 million) , foreign aid to nations who don’t even seem to want it and huge golden handshakes to public sector executives who leave their jobs, we are asked to believe that ‘there is no more money’. We are expected to fear that without all this we would be like Greece.
This may be true. But here is a thing; if it is true, why do our Chief Officers keep pretending that we can provide the same service under these conditions? I have no desire for promotion. I will not be going to the Lords. If I am awarded a QPM it is likely to be for something I do on the street, not at the 9th hole. I can say it and here it is:
The policing service we are able to deliver at the moment in Ruralshire is bobbins. As a frontline Inspector, I spend most of my day shifts apologising to people for how rubbish we are. The emergency service is dangerously compromised, the crime investigation effort is almost solely focussed on detecting minor infringements and has been largely handed over to inexperienced neighbourhood patrol officers, the control room is shockingly bad and forensics, custody, front counter, transport and personnel have all virtually ceased to exist.
Communication equipment has been withdrawn, you can’t get a police dog for a track, the cars are falling apart (remember, we are expected to respond at speeds of up to 100 mph, the cars need to be spot-on) and there never seems to be a night duty CID capacity. Worse still, there are no probationers to make the tea.
This post is not about the reasons for this state of affairs. It is about the fact that we are lying about it. If all this is really is necessary for the economic survival of the nation, then politicians and very senior officers can tell the truth about it because everyone will understand. So why do we lie? I simply cannot understand this.
Gadget Note: Readers will be pleased to note that the Diversity Training Department (and remember this is Ruralshire, not inner-city London) have escaped any cuts and are still busy promoting Gypsy Culture Week, teaching us about Mary Seacole and organising the annual LGBT dance. Priorities folks. That’s what we like to see.
I believe you and feel for you. I have friends in the job, and hear their stories, so I know what you say to be true.
We are lied to constantly, and wish they could at the higher levels, MTFU and tell us how it really is, without spin.
I still blame Brown/Blair for starting the event change that has led to this.
Please keep the faith, as without the thin blue line, all we have is anarchy.
We are lied to constantly, and wish they could at the higher levels, MTFU and tell us how it really is, without spin.
I still blame Brown/Blair for starting the event change that has led to this.
Please keep the faith, as without the thin blue line, all we have is anarchy.
I would agree with most, but not this:
Elroy Blue said:
the cars are falling apart (remember, we are expected to respond at speeds of up to 100 mph, the cars need to be spot-on)
Try comparing them to ambulances: up to 7 years old, with >300,000 miles on the clock. I would love to work with what the police get.triumphkryten said:
I still blame Brown/Blair for starting the event change that has led to this.
This is pure Cameron. It is dogma, not so pure and simple.But it will change as it always does. When things start to collapse and performance levels drop so that even the public start complain there will be much spin on how much better things are. It will get so silly that even the press will not be able to support it. Then money will be thrown at the police, they will be required to recruit anything that moves, training, which has all but disappeared, will suddenly be required to invent itself anew and come up with ways to cut time.
Gadget's report of operational officers moving into the back rooms is what is what I'm being told about my local force. They are shown as operational of course but they are doing the jobs that were handed to civvies in the past to put officers out and about. As numbers drop the percentage shown as operational obviously goes up and everyone is happy.
Worse still is the fact that the cuts are not even half over yet. Gadget says 1/3rd have been removed from the streets in his force. This is more than in my force at the moment although a 30% drop is the headline figure at the end, although it will not be reported to the press of course.
This is the biggest change that policing in this country has undergone, all without being voted for, without it being mentioned in manifestoes. It is not planned. There is no change in responsibilities, apart from, as Gadget says, having to clear up what other agencies no longer bother with despite it being a requirement.
And, just to show Cameron has got this economy measure spot on, he's installed another layer of bureaucracy on forces, increasing expense dramatically in order to provide some function that is already covered.
I’m no apologist for labour, Blair (is anyone?) or Brown but this is all Cameron’s work.
I hold out no hope of enjoying any party that Cameron organises in a brewery.
At the end of the day, Labour left the country in a mess.
There is no money.
So how else can the Conservatives (or anyone else) sort the mess out without cutting.
I do believe even the Labour Party alluded to that at one point.
But the cuts should firstly be seen in what we give away to foreign nations, be that in wars or so called aid.
There is no money.
So how else can the Conservatives (or anyone else) sort the mess out without cutting.
I do believe even the Labour Party alluded to that at one point.
But the cuts should firstly be seen in what we give away to foreign nations, be that in wars or so called aid.
Derek Smith said:
This is pure Cameron. It is dogma, not so pure and simple.
Not wishing to drag this into a political debate, but it was the ridiculous level of Labour public spending, designed to artificially manipulate the jobless figures by just creating jobs for them to do from the public purse, plus Brown's love affair with the City and inability to place proper controls on it that got this country into the financial s
t storm that the following government, of whatever colour would have to sort out - so blaming Cameron is just picking an easy target because he's the one having to do it.You only have to see the money pissed away on the NHS IT system, ID cards, Millennium Dome etc, and now the aftermath of PPI schools and hospitals to see that that money could have been used to much better effect
Edited by triumphkryten on Monday 13th February 11:28
Cameron's attacks on the Police are politically motivated. Nothing more, nothing less. The money saved is peanuts in the grand scheme of things. It will prove vastly more expensive when they have to undo the mess they are making. He lost his battle when the Conservatives were last in power. He's come back for unfinished business.
Elroy Blue said:
He lost his battle when the Conservatives were last in power. He's come back for unfinished business.
What does this mean?Ever heard of look after the pennies.................
At the end of the day, the public purse is empty, and we need to do something.
Its not just the Police that are suffering cuts, it seems to be everyhting except spending on wars and foreign aid
triumphkryten said:
Derek Smith said:
This is pure Cameron. It is dogma, not so pure and simple.
Not wishing to drag this into a political debate, but it was the ridiculous level of Labour public spending, designed to artificially manipulate the jobless figures by just creating jobs for them to do from the public purse, plus Brown's love affair with the City and inability to place proper controls on it that got this country into the financial s
t storm that the following government, of whatever colour would have to sort out - so blaming Cameron is just picking an easy target because he's the one having to do it.You only have to see the money pissed away on the NHS IT system, ID cards, Millennium Dome etc, and now the aftermath of PPI schools and hospitals to see that that money could have been used to much better effect
Edited by triumphkryten on Monday 13th February 11:28
I can't work out how to link the graphs from here into this thread;
http://www.hmic.gov.uk/crime-and-policing-comparat...
The spend per head of population on Policing does not relate to crime, ASB or anything else that I can see, some rural forces get a particularly raw deal.
The cuts have hit some forces more than others, those used to higher levels of funding are finding life tough adjusting back to levels not seen for a number of years. Those with the lowest funding already are even worse.
When they run out of Ambulances, the Police attend.
When they run out of Police....
http://www.hmic.gov.uk/crime-and-policing-comparat...
The spend per head of population on Policing does not relate to crime, ASB or anything else that I can see, some rural forces get a particularly raw deal.
The cuts have hit some forces more than others, those used to higher levels of funding are finding life tough adjusting back to levels not seen for a number of years. Those with the lowest funding already are even worse.
When they run out of Ambulances, the Police attend.
When they run out of Police....
daz3210 said:
What does this mean?
Cameron was co-author of the Sheehy report (along with that other imbecile, Ken Clark). A politically inspired project to turn the Police into security guards. He lost the majority of that one. Sadly, I voted for Cameron to get rid of Brown. He kept his intentions well hidden. It's not just about how he's attacked my working conditions and pay. It's about what he's doing to the police service itself.
Elroy Blue said:
daz3210 said:
What does this mean?
Cameron was co-author of the Sheehy report (along with that other imbecile, Ken Clark). A politically inspired project to turn the Police into security guards. He lost the majority of that one. Sadly, I voted for Cameron to get rid of Brown. He kept his intentions well hidden. It's not just about how he's attacked my working conditions and pay. It's about what he's doing to the police service itself.
Yes Cameron is behind the cuts to funding. But has he actually said XYZ ranks must suffer these cuts? My guess is no. Its more likely that those who make the decisions of how to spend the limited resources available have taken a stance along the line of 'Well I Aing Gonna Suffer'.
Whats the alternative to the cuts? Just carry on as we were and end up like Greece?
daz3210 said:
But is it Cameron that has actually attacked your conditions and pay?
Yes Cameron is behind the cuts to funding. But has he actually said XYZ ranks must suffer these cuts? My guess is no. Its more likely that those who make the decisions of how to spend the limited resources available have taken a stance along the line of 'Well I Aing Gonna Suffer'.
Whats the alternative to the cuts? Just carry on as we were and end up like Greece?
Cut everyone else's pay, not mine.Yes Cameron is behind the cuts to funding. But has he actually said XYZ ranks must suffer these cuts? My guess is no. Its more likely that those who make the decisions of how to spend the limited resources available have taken a stance along the line of 'Well I Aing Gonna Suffer'.
Whats the alternative to the cuts? Just carry on as we were and end up like Greece?
bicycleshorts said:
Cut everyone else's pay, not mine.
Oddly enough, that isn't the debate at all.Sure, there are cuts to future terms and conditions for Police Officers, but in reality, most of the changes just bring them into line with practice in private industry (o/t rates, on-call, recall to work etc)
Because the Police bill is mainly salary costs and Officers are generally excempt from redundancy (so long as they remain competent), the debate is more about Officer numbers than the take home pay of individual cops.
Reducing the cost of Policing means fewer cops.
I don't have an issue if that means fewer doing jobs that don't require Police powers, even outsourcing to private firms that can do the same job better and cheaper.
The issue comes when you call 999 and there is no one to attend your emergency, or when the cuts mean less resources dealing with organised crime, or child abuse, or domestic abuse, or wildlife crime, or money laundering, or terrorism, or fraud, or criminal damage, or shop theft, or car theft, or....
I don't go with the arguement that this is the PM "getting his own back" for Sheehy. It is about modernising the Police (I am sure they are trying to work out how they can do that with the Fire Service too, but it is a little more difficult when that sits with local Councils rather than the Home Office).
Insp Gadget Blog said:
Gadget Note: Readers will be pleased to note that the Diversity Training Department (and remember this is Ruralshire, not inner-city London) have escaped any cuts and are still busy promoting Gypsy Culture Week, teaching us about Mary Seacole and organising the annual LGBT dance. Priorities folks. That’s what we like to see.
This lets the blog down. If the force brought together its intelligence function and it's "Diversity Training", more Officers might see the value in really getting to know your market (victims and offenders). The force might be more effective at keeping Ruralshire safe if the Inspector understood more about what is going on and why - or indeed how they might be more effective at reducing crime.Most successful Firms spend alot of time and effort getting critical information about the people their staff are meeting on a daily basis out to them.
The Inspector is peddling the view that it is not important to understand anyone who is different to Gadget, which lets the blog down.
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