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News Archive: Police (2005)

September 19, 2005: Home Secretary Responds to HMIC

September 16 2005: Fewer Police Forces?

July 26, 2005: Police Action on Diversity

July 25, 2005: Police Numbers At New High

March 8, 2005: CRE Report on Police

February 25, 2005: Record Police Numbers

February 25, 2005: More Special Constables

January 3, 2005: UK Policing Claimed To Be Amongst World's Worst

News Archive: Police (2004)

December 1, 2004: Conditional Cautioning Code Issued

November 30, 2004: Police Complaints and Discipline

November 26, 2004: Third National Policing Plan Published

November 2, 2004: New Technology Raises Arrest Rates

October 13, 2004: Death in Police Custody: New Figures

September 30, 2004: Record Number of Police Officers

September 25, 2004: Police Performance Improving, say Home Office

September 19, 2005: Home Secretary Responds to HMIC

The police service was today invited by Home Secretary Charles Clarke to come forward with firm proposals for the creation of strategic forces in each region. He made the announcement in response to... more

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September 16 2005: Fewer Police Forces?

The existing structure of 43 separate police forces is "no longer fit for purpose", according to a new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. The original version of this report... more

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July 26, 2005: Police Action on Diversity

The police are to step up their drive to encourage the recruitment of ethnic minorities and women. At a joint Home Office and ACPO National Diversity Conference on 'Delivering Diversity in the Police Service' ...more

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July 25, 2005: Police Numbers At New High

Police numbers have reached a record level of over 141,000. The number of police officers in England and Wales on 31 March 2005 totalled 141,230... more

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March 8, 2005: CRE Report on Police

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has just published the final findings and recommendations of its formal investigation into the Police Service of England and Wales... more

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February 25, 2004: Record Police Numbers

Police numbers have topped 140,000 for the first time. The number of police officers (full-time equivalents) in England and Wales in September 2004 was... more

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February 25, 2005: More Special Constables

An extra 1,500 special constables have been recruited. This is the first time their numbers have risen since the Second World War. Special constables are volunteers who serve as police officers in their own time... more

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January 3, 2005: UK Policing Claimed To Be Amongst World's Worst

A study from social policy think-tank Civitas claims that Britain has both one of the highest crime rates in the developed world, and one of the most ineffective police forces. The report, entitled Cultures and Crimes: Policing in Four Nations, is authored by... more

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December 1, 2004: Conditional Cautioning Code Issued

A new Code of Practice on Conditional Cautioning for England and Wales has been published. Conditional Cautioning in essence allows offenders to be given a suitable disposal without the usual court involvement. The Code governs the use of Conditional Cautions under Part 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The Act defines a Conditional Caution as ‘a caution which is given in respect of an offence committed by the offender and which has conditions attached to it’. If an offender fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with the conditions attached to a Conditional Caution the Act provides for criminal proceedings to be instituted and the caution cancelled. Restorative justice processes can be used as a condition of the caution (where the contact with the victim, direct or indirect, is itself the condition) if both victim and offender consent to this.

The basic criteria which must be satisfied before a Conditional Caution can be considered are:

the offender is 18 or over
the offender admits the offence to the authorised person
there is, in the opinion of the relevant prosecutor, sufficient evidence to charge the offender with the offence

If the above criteria are satisfied, a Conditional Caution may be an alternative to charge, taking into account the factors outlined in the Code.

A Conditional Caution is a statutory development of the non-statutory police caution (or ‘simple caution’) which has long been available, at police or Crown Prosecution Service discretion, as an alternative to prosecution. A Conditional Caution may only be given by a suitably trained authorised person, that is a constable; a person designated as an investigating officer under section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002; or a person authorised for the purpose by a relevant prosecutor.

Where rehabilitative or reparative conditions (or both) are considered preferable to prosecution, Conditional Cautioning offers a statutory means of enforcing them through prosecution for the original offence in the event of non-compliance. The key to determining whether a Conditional Caution should be given – instead of prosecution or a simple caution – is that imposing specified conditions will be an appropriate and effective means of addressing an offender’s behaviour or making reparation for the effects of the offence on the victim or the community.

Download the full Code here.

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November 30, 2004: Police Complaints and Discipline

The latest - and last - Bulletin on Police Complaints and Discipline has been published by the Home Office. In future the collection and publication of complaints and discipline data will be the responsibility of the new Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The Bulletin deals with complaints, breaches of conduct and discipline charges against police officers in England and Wales for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004. (Complaints against civilian staff and traffic wardens are not included.) During the period April 2003 to March 2004, 15,885 cases of complaint were received by police forces. This is a rise of 4 per cent over the previous year. Since 1999/00 this is the first year that complaint cases have risen.

The Bulletin deals next with complaints received and the outcome of completed complaints. It also deals with officers convicted of criminal offences and disciplinary charges brought against officers. Cases received since 1 April 1999 have been processed under new misconduct procedures. Those cases received prior to April 1999 are still subject to the old disciplinary code.

Key points from the Bulletin:

The police received 15,885 cases of complaint in year ending March 2004, a 4% rise over the previous twelve months. They represented 23,849 individual items of complaint.
During the year to March 2004, 69 per cent of individual complaints dealt with were informally resolved, withdrawn or dispensed with.
A total of 7,761 individual complaints required investigations in the 12 months to March 2004, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous 12 months.
A total of 961 complaints were substantiated in the 12 months to March 2004, 2 per cent more than the previous year. Over half involved a failure in duty and around a fifth concerned oppressive behaviour.
Disciplinary/misconduct allegations were proved against 1,545 officers in the 12 months to March 2004. For 160 of these officers charges related to complaints from members of the public. As a result of disciplinary/misconduct allegations, 95 officers were dismissed or required to resign, a decrease of 17 per cent over the previous year.

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November 26, 2004: Third National Policing Plan Published

The third National Policing Plan 2005-08 sets the national framework for policing over the next three years. It should be read in the context of the White Paper, Building Communities, Beating Crime: A better police service for the 21st century launched on 9th November, 2004, which sets out a programme for police reform.

The core role of the police is considered by the government to be preventing and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. This National Policing Plan lays out the following five key priorities that should guide the work of the police service. It also sets them in the context of the over-arching importance of counter-terrorism and of community engagement. The five key priorities are to:

reduce overall crime – including violent and drug-related crime – in line with the Government’s Public Service Agreements (PSAs)
provide a citizen-focused police service which responds to the needs of communities and individuals, especially victims and witnesses, and inspires public confidence in the police, particularly among minority ethnic communities;
take action with partners to increase sanction detection rates and target prolific and other priority offenders;
reduce people’s concerns about crime, and anti-social behaviour and disorder; and • combat serious and organised crime, within and across force boundaries.

The full plan can be downloaded here.

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November 2, 2004: New Technology Raises Arrest Rates

Results published today in a study entitled 'Driving crime down: Denying criminals the use of the road' indicate that a hi-tech vehicle number plate scanning system has seen police arrest rates rise significantly. The study highlights the increasing impact of technological advances on crime detection.

The year long pilot study named 'Laser 2' of of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology began in June 2003. ANPR instantly scans vehicle number plates and matches them against information stored against police databases to identify stolen vehicles or those involved in crime. Once identified by the system, suspicious vehicles are intercepted by the police. ANPR systems can check up to 3,000 number plates per hour on vehicles travelling up to 100 mph.

The pilot was undertaken in 23 police forces across England and Wales. During the study period, ANPR teams across these 23 forces produced nine/ten times the national average arrest rate per officer, totalling more than 13,000 arrests. £8 million worth of drugs and property were seized.

ANPR is not a new technology, but it was only recently that the full potential to tackle criminality was realized. In 2002, a number of police forces increased their use of ANPR systems to include dedicated intercept officers. These officers were able to intercept and stop vehicles of interest identified by the ANPR systems. The intention was that targeted enforcement would detect, disrupt and deter criminality.

A 6 month evaluation of the use of these dedicated intercept officers (‘Laser 1’) showed the concept to be extremely effective, achieving arrest rates many times that of conventional policing. Since 1 June 2003, the 23 forces have operated dedicated intercept officers (‘Laser 2’).The Home Office estimates that national roll-out of ANPR would lead to approximately 26,400 additional offences being brought to justice.

The ANPR intercept teams stopped a total of 180,543 vehicles. From these stops, the intercept officers arrested 13,499 persons, including:

2,263 arrests for theft and burglary
3,324 arrests for driving offences (for example driving whilst disqualified)
1,107 arrests for drugs offences
1,386 arrests for auto crime (theft from and of vehicles)

They recovered or seized property, including:

1,152 stolen vehicles (valued at over £7.5 million)
266 offensive weapons and 13 firearms
drugs worth over £380,000 from 740 vehicles
stolen goods worth over £640,000 from 430 vehicles

They issued fixed penalty notices, including:

22,825 tickets for failing to display VED
6,299 for no insurance
1,496 for no MOT
20,290 for a variety of other offences

A national data centre will be created to exchange ANPR-read data from across the UK for post-incident investigation and to support work to tackle terrorism and organised crime.Home Secretary David Blunkett notes that although it is only one policing tool, ANPR has uses in a range of areas, including tackling volume crime, serious & organised crime, counterterrorism, and in intelligence gathering. It has also proven an asset in tackling the ‘underclass’ of vehicles that are incorrectly registered, untaxed and uninsured. The full study is available for download here. Mr Blunkett said:

"ANPR is a powerful tool, unique in its ability to impact on crime at every level, from local volume crime through cross-border and organised crime and counter terrorism. It brings enormous benefits to the police and to society… ANPR is a shining example of how targeted police operations deliver positive results."

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October 13, 2004: Death in Police Custody: New Figures

A new Home Office statistical bulletin on Deaths During Or Following Police Contact provides information on deaths that occurred during or following police contact between April 2003 and March 2004.The full bulletin can be downloaded here.

There were 100 such deaths during this period. This was a slight reduction on the previous year (2002/03) when 104 such deaths occurred. The report provides a breakdown of the Individual Circumstances of each death. The Home Office officially categorises such death in the following way:

Category 1 – Fatal Road Traffic Incidents Involving the Police
Category 2 – Fatal Shooting Incidents Involving the Police
Category 3 – Deaths in or Following Custody
Category 4 – Deaths during or following other types of contact with the police

Those who died as a result of self-harm during or following contact with the police have also decreased – down from 13 in 2002/03 to 9 this year. Of these, 4 died whilst in police custody and the remaining deaths occurred after some other form of police contact.

During 2003/04, the report notes, there has been a significant decrease in the number of people from minority ethnic minority groups who died during or following contact with the police. There were 10 such deaths this year compared to 22 recorded in 2002/03.

The 2002/3 total of deaths from people in minority ethnic groups had raised the issues that there may have an underlying reason linked to ethnicity. The Home Office commissioned research and the Police Complaints Authority looked at all minority ethnic deaths in police custody between 1998 and March 2003 to identify any links or causes. While there were grounds for concern relating to some aspects of the general treatment of all detainees, there appeared to be little evidence to suggest that concerns were directly linked to racial stereotyping and racist attitudes or behaviour.

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September 30, 2004: Record Number of Police Officers

The Home Office has just published new figures on the overall total of police officers in England and Wales. They indicate that there were 140,563 full-time equivalent police officers on 31 March 2004. This is an increase of 6,114 (that is, 5 per cent) compared to a year earlier.

All forty-three forces increased their total officer strength in the 12 months to 31 March 2004. The largest increases in percentage terms were in Greater Manchester (up 10 per cent or 720 officers), Avon and Somerset (up 8 per cent or 257 officers) and Cumbria (up 8 per cent or 87 officers). The largest numerical increase was in the London's Metropolitan Police (up 1,804 officers or 6 per cent). In all, 14 forces increased their officer strength by 100 or more compared with 31 March 2003.

The overall total includes 2,095 officers seconded to the National Crime Squad, National Criminal Intelligence Service and central services.

There were 4,629 minority ethnic officers (that is, 3.3 per cent) of the total police strength, compared with 2.9 per cent on 31 March 2003.

The adjusted police officer strength figure for 31 March 2004, for comparison with figures prior to March 2003, was 139,200 - the highest level on record.

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September 25, 2004: Police Performance Improving, say Home Office

Home Office figures has just published figures suggest that police performance in England and Wales in the fields of crime investigation and crime reduction is improving. Statistics indicate that the police succeeded in reducing burglary by eight per cent, robbery by nine per cent and vehicle crime by more than six per cent in 2003/4. The total number of offences brought to justice has increased. They also indicate that almost two thirds of police time is spent on frontline policing.

The performance reports were constructed using Home Office published data supplied by individual police forces, including recorded crime statistics and British Crime Survey findings, as well as some unpublished data on sickness absence in the police service and offences brought to justice. In addition, they report the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Baseline Assessment gradings published in June 2004. They also include previously unpublished data on the amount of time which police officers spend on frontline policing.

The police performance monitors are downloadable here.

According to Home Office Minister Hazel Blears:

"The overall picture of policing performance that emerges is encouraging. Crime and the fear of crime are both down and the number of offences brought to justice has gone up. The reports also identify areas for improvement, most notably in the levels of detections. We are developing a number of strategies to that end including improving forensic techniques such as the use of DNA and fingerprint and footprint images to improve detections."

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