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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/01/editorial-police-policing-rebooting-service
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Police and policing: rebooting the service | Police and policing: rebooting the service |
| (10 days later) | |
| It has been another tough week to be a police officer. A crisis in the numbers of black and minority ethnic candidates for promotion, the announcement of radical reforms of pay and training, and finally the jailing of a detective chief inspector for trying to sell information about the phone hacking inquiry. Even the independent investigator, the IPCC, was condemned by MPs for being over-reliant on ex-officers to investigate the actions of serving ones. Never in their long history have the police endured such a collapse in public and political esteem. No wonder there was a roar of anguished protest on these pages yesterday. | It has been another tough week to be a police officer. A crisis in the numbers of black and minority ethnic candidates for promotion, the announcement of radical reforms of pay and training, and finally the jailing of a detective chief inspector for trying to sell information about the phone hacking inquiry. Even the independent investigator, the IPCC, was condemned by MPs for being over-reliant on ex-officers to investigate the actions of serving ones. Never in their long history have the police endured such a collapse in public and political esteem. No wonder there was a roar of anguished protest on these pages yesterday. |
| But however much sympathy individual officers deserve for their arduous and sometimes dangerous work, this past week is more evidence of how much needs to change in the institution in which they serve. Take the disappointing news about diversity. Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, warned that there was not a single black or minority ethnic officer currently on the key training course for chief officers. He is so concerned that he wants new powers to introduce positive discrimination to ensure police reflect the communities they serve. So much for the complacent claim a few years ago by the then incoming commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Paul Stephenson, that the term institutional racism was no longer "appropriate or useful". | But however much sympathy individual officers deserve for their arduous and sometimes dangerous work, this past week is more evidence of how much needs to change in the institution in which they serve. Take the disappointing news about diversity. Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, warned that there was not a single black or minority ethnic officer currently on the key training course for chief officers. He is so concerned that he wants new powers to introduce positive discrimination to ensure police reflect the communities they serve. So much for the complacent claim a few years ago by the then incoming commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Paul Stephenson, that the term institutional racism was no longer "appropriate or useful". |
| If there are too many officers who still dismiss diversity as political correctness, it is nothing compared with the hostility provoked by Theresa May's latest plans for the police career structure. Sticking closely to the recommendations made last year by Tom Winsor, now chief inspector of constabulary, the home secretary wants accelerated promotion and direct entry access to senior jobs by outsiders to attract the kind of talent deterred by the current measured tread up the career path. | If there are too many officers who still dismiss diversity as political correctness, it is nothing compared with the hostility provoked by Theresa May's latest plans for the police career structure. Sticking closely to the recommendations made last year by Tom Winsor, now chief inspector of constabulary, the home secretary wants accelerated promotion and direct entry access to senior jobs by outsiders to attract the kind of talent deterred by the current measured tread up the career path. |
| Making policing a white-collar profession may be an important and necessary improvement to a service that one former chief constable, Lord Dear, described yesterday as risk averse and process-driven. But reform is never without risk. The most obvious is that, coming on top of slashed budgets, reduced pensions and police numbers that are falling further and faster even than predicted a year ago, it is simply unachievable. What prospect of buy-in when morale verges on the catastrophic, in a service beleaguered not just by the fear of redundancy but the sequence of dismaying revelations from Hillsborough to Plebgate? Nor are the Winsor reforms a solution to the lack of diversity, since they would neither automatically restore trust nor guarantee integrity. Reform is a necessary precondition, but it is not the whole answer. | Making policing a white-collar profession may be an important and necessary improvement to a service that one former chief constable, Lord Dear, described yesterday as risk averse and process-driven. But reform is never without risk. The most obvious is that, coming on top of slashed budgets, reduced pensions and police numbers that are falling further and faster even than predicted a year ago, it is simply unachievable. What prospect of buy-in when morale verges on the catastrophic, in a service beleaguered not just by the fear of redundancy but the sequence of dismaying revelations from Hillsborough to Plebgate? Nor are the Winsor reforms a solution to the lack of diversity, since they would neither automatically restore trust nor guarantee integrity. Reform is a necessary precondition, but it is not the whole answer. |
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