Detection Targets are being scrapped??? WTF? Oh, some of my learned colleagues and others have written about this so this is certainly nothing new.. but it is new to me!!!
After all - we have a "detections policy". Detection Targets still appear to be in place in my farce..
We also have "PERFORMANCE MANAGERS" who are generally Sgts and above who are there to make sure we "PERFORM". OMG it just winds me up.. I perform just fine without you counting how many HOME OFFICE APPROVED DETECTIONS I have got this month thank you! And if we don't have Detection Targets to worry about then those Sgts etc may have to actually go back out on to the street.
In this job you can go out every day and drag in all the bad people off the streets, charge etc... and you can do that all day every day and NEVER be thanked by any of the Performance Managers, or by the public, or by anyone else..
Yet if you fail to reach your 'target figure' for the month then you soon find out because the big boss wants to talk to you as soon as you bat an eyelid.
Anyway, I was reading the blog from Sam at Monday Books, it's interesting, it has a great point of view on things - and has some more words of wisdom from the great Inspector Gadget, and of course, as you would expect it's well researched...
As stated by the Inspector - Public Satisfaction isn't going to work when there are gatso's and speed camera vans, and increase of fines for seatbelts or anything else the public doesn't like, or when the courts let the scumbag thief or burglar back out on to the streets... it all just makes the Police look bad and the public blame us as we are the ones they see as responsible.
So back to the point....... if we now don't have to worry about DETECTIONS then can I get back to just arresting the people who NEED to be arrested instead of prosecuting an 11 year old for stealing £1.18 pence worth of items from the local Co Op? (it's a detectable crime - please forgive me kiddo!)
Hmmm, so now I can go out and attempt to be proactive then?
I doubt it as I'll still be ringing my victims of crime to update them. Being deployed to numerous accidents and non-crime domestics then doing all the paperwork for those (check here in the State of Anarchy II post) and then I'll be catching up on trying to actually investigate some of the other dozen or so crimes on my computer account.. Oh yeah, and making up 2 files from the last two people I charged, doing a full file upgrade for the numpty who pleaded "not guilty" at court because he thinks he can get away with it when the CCTV is clear as a bell and shows him without a doubt!
Argggh! When will it end?
Can we not just get on with our job for once and let them hire secretaries to take care of the paperwork, publicity managers to get us good street cred and endear us to the public and a common sense merchant to get rid of the senior management waffle and take us back to the principles of policing - and actually get to patrol the streets.
Seems unlikely that one of the key planks of New Labour public service reform would just be abolished overnight. More likely, as Mr Gadget says, that one measure is just an amalgam of 100 other measures. There is even talk of us lot having targets. I will be kicked out immediately if that happens because (on paper) I am utterly ineffective.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's completely brilliant isn't it..
ReplyDeleteI am very much of the belief to just let police go out and well, police!
Shame that New Labour doesn't believe in doing anything of the sort and uses the police just for political gain. That's totally wrong.