Policing cannot be expected to meet 100 per cent of public expectation on current resources and “hard choices” will be needed, according to Sir Tom Winsor.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary has released his final State of Policing report, reflecting on the last 12 months and his views after a decade in the role, as he prepares to step down on 31 March.
Commenting on the “gap between resourcing levels and public expectations”, Sir Tom noted that the police service cannot meet all the demand it faces, both now and in the future. This, he argues, raises the question of “what does the public want the police to do less of?”
He said: “The police service can’t meet 100 per cent of public expectations for, say, 70 per cent of their efficient cost. The police can only be reasonably expected to reach their highest practicable level of efficiency with the money they are given.
“If resources are not to be increased, there must be a reduction in the demand that the police will be required or expected to meet, or in the quality of the service provided. Through their elected representatives, the public need to decide how much safety they are prepared to pay for, and how much risk they are prepared to tolerate.”
Phil Jones, chair of Staffordshire Police Federation, has welcomed the comments.
“We have been saying similar things ourselves,” says Phil, “The chronic under-investment in policing during the austerity years have caused a massive gap between what the public wants us to do and the resources we have to meet that need.
‘While officer numbers plummeted, we saw no corresponding fall in demand and in fact we just saw more and more demand land at our feet. We were expected to step up where other public sector and charity organisations were unable to cope with the demand they were facing and became the service of first and last resort.
“That has had a damaging effect on the service we have been able to provide but also on the health and wellbeing of our officers and staff who have been run ragged trying to provide the public with the policing service they require.”
Sir Tom’s report found that the volume of non-emergency (101) calls to forces in England and Wales fell by 27 per cent over the last five years, partly due to a shift to online reporting and also the pandemic.
However, 999 calls have remained fairly constant over the same period, with the police receiving approximately 9.3 million emergency calls each year. In 2014/15, approximately half of all recorded crimes resulted in a suspect not being identified. Now, the proportion is approximately a third.
Sir Tom said the reasons for this include more demands on the such as tackling organised crime, and increasingly complex investigations that may involve particularly vulnerable, traumatised people or the use of sophisticated technology, and offences that span local, regional, national or international borders.
Officers have got better at accurately recording crime, he noted, while also commending the “courage and commitment” of police officers and staff.
“The severity of the problems that our police service now faces should not be underestimated, but the public should be reassured by the strong, pragmatic and professional approach of police officers and staff,” said Sir Tom.
Other highlights of his report include:
- Online crime is now by far the most prevalent type of crime; fraud has exploded, eclipsing all other crimes in volume;
- Total demand and public expectations cannot be met without sufficient funding and the public must decide how much threat, harm and risk they are prepared to tolerate; and
- The rapid advancement of technology has provided opportunities for both criminals and the police, but policing has struggled to keep pace;
- The load placed on the police by the chronically insufficient public provision of treatment of mental ill health is unjustified;
- The need for improved vetting of officers and staff;
- The 43-force model, born in 1962, is no longer fit for purpose.
