Demands placed on policing are too great

5 October 2022

Police officers should be given more time and better resources to concentrate on fighting crime, according to a retired senior officer.

Sir Peter Fahy warned forces were struggling to deliver basic services because the demands placed upon them had become too great and said public confidence had suffered as a result.

The former chief constable of Greater Manchester was speaking after police chiefs vowed to make sure officers attended all home burglaries as part of a new set of standards they hope will result in more of the crimes being solved and more offenders prosecuted.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The Government needs to remove from policing all these additional tasks that have been taken on.

“It is not just about the number of police officers, it’s what they do and whether they are given the freedom and the tools to concentrate on crime.

“At the moment most frontline operational officers are very frustrated that they can’t concentrate on crime and criminals because they are picking up lots of other jobs as well, covering for social services and mental health services. 

“These are vital jobs but police officers are not actually trained to do them and they want to concentrate on crime and while numbers are going up, a lot of those officers are inexperienced and need time to learn the craft and get to know local criminals and local patterns of crime.”

Rich Cooke, chair of West Midlands Police Federation, has backed Sir Peter’s comments: “We welcome the fact that a chief officer, albeit one who is now retired, is speaking up for police officers and explaining the realities of policing. In recent years, we have been expected to not only meet the demands placed on the police service but also pick up the slack when other agencies are over-run. We seem to be the go to for everyone and everything. We are the service that can never say no and yet we always seem to be the first to face criticism in the media.

“It is time for the Government to make a long-term funding settlement and properly invest in policing. The uplift programme is welcome but we just don’t have the infrastructure to support the extra officers we are taking on and consideration needs to be given to the fact that we now have a significant number of officers with less than five years’ experience which not only puts them under pressure but also the more experienced officers who are trying to support them.”

Sir Peter’s comments came as the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said an evidence review from the College of Policing, which is responsible for setting the standards for policing, had shown how swift attendance of officers at scenes of crime can increase victim satisfaction and aid investigations, as well as helping with the prevention of future crimes in the area.

It said public opinion and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) report on acquisitive crime were also taken into account before the decision was reached.

The organisation said forces will prioritise attendance where people’s homes have been burgled, rather than outbuildings and garden sheds.

Sir Peter said: “In previous years, certainly before 2010 when there were big cuts in police numbers, officers would attend most burglaries - certainly most house burglaries.

“I think this reflects that the number of officers is now increasing but also the fact that police chiefs recognose that there is now a gap in public confidence and a lot of that is about the basic, day-to-day service.

“So they have made this pledge but at the same time they are asking two things from the Government: that the Government takes from the police lots of things that are not crime-related such as mental health cases, covering for other public services and other issues that are not about crime.

“They are also asking for a review of crime recording practices on which the police spend a lot of time and bureacracy. 

“The scope of criminal law has expanded recently and there are lots of new offences on things like social media where the police would like to say surely we should be concentrating on more serious issues.”

Sir Peter acknowledged there was much more to solving crime than sending an officer to the scene of a burglary.

He said: “You need very good scenes of crime officers gathering forensic material, you need analysts who look at all the local burglaries, all the local burglars and patterns of who might have committed these offences. 

“You need plain clothes officers and detectives who are targeting the offenders because a lot of burglaries are committed by the same small group of people.

“You need good intelligence, good local officers and good cooperation with the public.

“Just attending the crime itself is very important for the victim but there is a lot more to be done as well including reducing the backlog on reports and getting people into court much quicker.”