TARGETS in policing are making a \u201ccome-back\u201d so senior officers can \u201cavoid responsibility for making decisions\u201d, the Home Secretary has said.<\/p>\n
Theresa May (pictured) told the Police Superintendents\u2019 Association Conference, that despite government moves to free officers up from bureaucracy and targets, some senior officers are still clinging on to them in forces. She described them as a \u201csecurity blanket\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mrs May said: \u201cTargets have been making a comeback in forces \u2013 and it is certainly not coming from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not being used to increase effectiveness of policing. Their main function seems to be to act as a security blanket for senior officers \u2013 a way to avoid taking responsibility for decisions they have to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not saying most or all of you have responded in that way, but some have and none of you should.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her speech to 250 superintendents and chief superintendents at the event in Warwickshire, she added: \u201cWe have cut the useless bureaucracy that turned police officers into form-fillers rather than crime fighters. We have given you the freedom to make your own decisions and to follow your own crime-fighting policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is essential that you pass this down the chain of command. You need to trust your junior officers to use their own judgement, just as I trust you. Having freedom means taking responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s down to you to decide what crime-fighting policies you\u2019re going to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs May also used her speech to outline how she believes direct entry superintendents will not only enhance the pool of specialist expertise in the Police Service but could help deal with the issue of diversity,<\/p>\n
Mrs May said: \u201cIt is good to give the opportunity to bring in a wider variety of experience. In any area it can enhance the ability of an organisation to deal with the issues they face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is also a possibility that direct entry can be used to deal with the issue of diversity in policing and we know that there is a question about people at senior ranks and throughout policing in relation to diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me this is about opening up and getting a different diversity of experience coming in and I think that enhances the ability of the police to do their job rather than the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
She declined to tell the conference what her plans are for police officers compulsory severance, once it goes to the Police Arbitration Tribunal on 15 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TARGETS in policing are making a \u201ccome-back\u201d so senior officers can \u201cavoid responsibility for making decisions\u201d, the Home Secretary has said. Theresa May (pictured) told the Police Superintendents\u2019 Association Conference,\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}