We are all
very much aware of the apparent contempt that the coalition Government seems to
hold for policing in this country, each time we hear one of our political
masters use the expression `You are the finest police service in the world` we
then hold our breath in anticipation of the next line which usually details
what they are going to do to us next and in doing so continue their program of
dismantling the service that is the envy of the world. Last year we saw police
officers rescue the security operation for the Olympics at the eleventh hour
and in doing so demonstrate to all sensible commentators that policing cannot
be sold to the lowest bidder – to do so gambles with the safety of our
communities. The first responsibility of Government is the safety of the people
who put them in office, not the pursuit of profit for private shareholders.
Following on
from the Olympics debacle, G4S and other shareholder driven companies continued
to show that events of summer 2012 were far from isolated instances of poor
planning. This year has seen the shameful revelations of such things as the
tagging fiasco. In many areas of policing the penny is finally starting to drop
that there is a fundamental difference between public and private institutions
in terms of their motivations and raison d`etre. One exists to make money for
shareholders and one to provide the best service possible to the public within
the confines of an allocated budget – end of. You can dress this up as much as you
like, but at the end of the day that is the reality of the market driven
economy we live in. To protect our public services we rely upon those who are
appointed to make decisions with public money to ensure that communities get
the best possible return on every single scarce penny and to be accountable for
their decision-making. This cannot be done by ploughing millions of taxpayer
pounds into companies who have no loyalty to policing nor communities and in
respect of which we will derive no long-term benefit for the expertise in
policing they are all the time developing at our expense.
We all know
that policing is a vocation like no other and the skills and expertise that the
professional police officer develops over years of service quite simply cannot
be replicated. We understand the
pressure that the force is under in terms of the swingeing cuts our political
masters have imposed upon those who protect communities, whilst protecting the
billions we send overseas in aid to countries that can afford space programs.
But even with that financial landscape we cannot afford to take our eye off the
ball in respect of why we are actually here, as to do so will play into the
hands of those predatory outside contractors waiting quietly in the wings to
pick off those lucrative money-making areas of policing.
The decision
by the force to remove experienced police officers out of the Sex Offender
Management Unit and replace them with poorly trained civilian investigators is
at best foolhardy and at worst incredibly reckless. We understand the need to
bring the wage bill down, but this cannot be at any cost. The role of
Investigative Assistant is very clearly set out in the title – they are there
to assist the professionals, not to replace them. The rationale for bringing
IA`s and OSO`s into the force has always been sold to us as being to provide
much-needed support to hard pressed police officers and to free them up to
perform their warranted roles. This is not what we are seeing here. This is
quite simply the replacement of police officers from a specialist and
safety-critical role and their replacement with a cheaper alternative. Given
the nature of the work that these colleagues perform I sincerely hope that I am
never in the position where we have to say `We told you so`, but I fear the
worst. Should that day ever arrive then it will be for the decision-makers of
today to be called to account.
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