Frontline Officers Should Join National Policing Board

THE new National Policing Board will only be effective if it involves frontline officers in its work, Essex Police Federation has said.

The body, set up by the Government to oversee the recruitment of 20,000 new officers, comprises Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Martin Hewitt; Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Katy Bourne; National Crime Agency Director General Lynne Owens; and Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House. However, Federation representatives have not been involved.

Steve Taylor has questioned the decision, adding that the board are “setting themselves up to fail”.

He explained: “In what other line of work would you review an area and have no subject matter experts from that area on the reviewing body? It is daft. It’s almost as silly as having an investigative body that has no ex-officers on it, dare I say. It’s ridiculous.

“And like the Independent Office of Police Conduct, unless you just want to see a missed opportunity and failure after missed opportunity and failure, I would suggest get some credible frontline experience on that policing board in order for its recommendations, for its findings, for its work to have any relevance to that front line.

“If it’s an academic study for academics, fill your boots. But if it’s something that you want to have an impact on the front line, in the name of credibility if nothing else, I would strongly suggest you get some frontline operatives on it. That’s pretty straightforward stuff really.”

The board will meet every four months and discuss issues including recruitment, officer wellbeing and issues around serious and organised crime. The division of the 20,000 new officers across the service is also likely to come under the board’s remit.

Police Federation of England and Wales Vice-Chair Ché Donald said it is vital that operational police officers are represented on the board.

He said: “How can the National Policing Board really be effective if we, or the other police staff associations, do not sit on it? There is no one better placed to guide and identify the changes needed to ‘rekindle’ the service than those on the frontline who day in day out experience the reality of the issues facing policing and society as a whole.”