constabulary

Fury over further kick in the teeth

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

PERSONALITIES

Prince honours officers, youth mission to Africa, PC’s projects win award plus charity events

Officers furious over police cuts, pay freeze, pension reform and a Dad’s Army of policing It’s been many years since we have seen such an orchestrated campaign against the police by what appears to be the Home Office. We have seen a string of negative stories about the police at the same time as swingeing cuts in the police budgets, police powers being reduced and policepension reform.

At a time when more and more pressure is being put on the police, civil unrest is expected to increase as a result of mass redundancies, and the possibility of new terror campaigns, why is the Home Office seeking to attack the police?

The Home Office knows that the police do not have the right to strike so perhaps it’s banking on that to prevent police demonstrations, or even strikes, but with the fury of rank-andfile officers and the Police Federation, it’s hard to predict what may happen over the next few months.

This is not just the view of police officers but also Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who told Constabulary: “There is a risk of creating a perfect storm – it’s deeply unfair that at the same time you are seeing 20% cuts that mean 12,500 officers and 15,000 support staff lost, there’s what seems to be the Government picking a fight with the police.

“We have seen government press officers putting stories in the papers attacking police, or picking out negative individual examples then implying they are a general case. I don’t think it is responsible and I don’t think it is fair.

“Ministers promised that front-line services would not be affected, but the opposite is happening. Where police forces don’t have the staff to plan operations, cover forensic investigations or other crucial support roles, we are now seeing police officers taken off the streets to fill the gap.

“The Home Secretary must realise

that you cannot make 20% front-loaded cuts to the police without losing the very crime fighters we need.

“The Government is taking too many risks with the fight against crime. Ministers need to face up to the reality of these cuts and change course before it is too late.”

Responding to the Winsor Report, Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “These recommendations, if implemented, together with the two-year pay freeze and likely increase in pension contributions, will have a devastating effect on policing.

“Police officers are likely to suffer a 15 to 20 per cent reduction in the value of their pay. Officers and their families are paying the price for the failure of the Home Secretary to safeguard policing from the 20% cut on the service imposed by the Treasury.

“ACPO has revealed plans that will see a loss of 12,500 police officers.

Operation Raise A £Million: officers and staff asked to donate an hour’s pay; take part in sponsored event or buy specially-commissioned items to help raise £1 million for Help for Heroes (see page 6)

This will have a detrimental effect on the service we are able to provide to the public, particularly as front-line police officers will also have to complete backroom tasks currently done by police staff colleagues as they too see a reduction in their numbers.

“Our message is clear. Police officers are furious; whilst they are used to being attacked, it is ordinarily from criminals but they did not expect the biggest blow to come from government. Home Secretary, it’s not too late. These are just recommendations at this stage and, if you wish to maintain the best police service, seriously consider the implications of proceeding with them.”

Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: “This is a further kick in the teeth for police officers.

“In a matter of weeks we have been told we’ll face a two-year pay freeze, the Winsor Report that may see officers losing thousands of pounds per annum and now this. Does this government really want a Dad’s Army of policing?

Now, to add insult to injury, we hear that the police will be called upon to help in the event of a prison officers’ strike.

Paul Davis, secretary of the Operational Policing Sub-Committee of the Police Federation, said: “The irony will not be lost on police officers that, at a time when the Home Secretary is cutting the police budget and planning to cut police pay and conditions, including overtime, she is relying on us to help her out whilst other workers exercise industrial rights.

“If police officers are required to police prisons in addition to the demands placed upon us already, then their safety and security is paramount. We already have agreements with ACPO as to what police officers will do and how they will do it and we will ensure that is strictly adhered to.”

Please email your views on this topic to chrislocke@constabulary.org.uk

PAGE 5 EXCLUSIVE

Shadow Home Secretary tells Constabulary her views on 20% police cuts and variety of police issues and says government is picking a fight with the police

PAGE 8 WOMEN’S POLICING Senior Women In Policing and the Scottish Women’s Development Forum; and police women recognised

PAGE 10 CONFERENCE National conference on panic rooms to provide escape for abuse victims fearing attack

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Mar/April 2011

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Stop democratic deficit In a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Home Office Minister Nick Herbert outlined government plans to replace bureaucratic control of the police with democratic accountability.

Change is needed because the current model of police authorities is not working well enough, explained Mr Herbert.

He pointed to statistics showing only four out of 22 of those inspected have been assessed as “performing well” in their most important functions.

“They may be doing a wor-

thy job, and I thank authority members for their commitment, but this democratic deficit cannot continue,” said the minister.

Police and crime commissioners will replace police authorities.

Democratically elected by the public, they will return power to “people and communities”.

“These new commissioners will be big local figures with a powerful local mandate to drive the fight against crime and antisocial behaviour. They will decide policing strategy and the force budget, set the

Home Secretary Theresa May is pictured with Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, who’s in charge of national Olympic safety and security co-ordination, Lord Coe and ODA chairman John Armitt during a tour of the Olympic Park in East London.

Touts who attempt to sell tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be hit with fines of up to £20,000, Home Secretary Theresa May announced during her visit to the OIympic Park.

The Government intends to increase the penalty for touting – selling Olympic and Paralympic Games tickets in public, or in the course of business, without permission – from £5,000 to £20,000.

With nearly 11 million tickets

ultimately available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is very different from other major sporting and cultural events – making it attractive to ticket touts.

Theresa May, who has responsibility for safety and security at the London 2012 Olympics, said: “The 2012 Olympic Games will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the games on home soil.

“By increasing the fines for touting we are sending a clear message to criminals and prospective criminals that it is not worth their while and they are not welcome.

“The focus of the Government and everyone involved is to deliver a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games that London, the UK and the world

local council tax precept, and appoint – and if necessary dismiss – the chief constable on behalf of the public.”

There are safeguards to make sure that too much power is not handed to one individual and police and crime panels will include representatives from local authorities, who will scrutinise the actions of commissioners.

And forces will remain under the control of their chief constables, ensuring that the police retain their operational independence.

Mr Herbert said that reforms

are essential to ending Whitehall’s bureaucratic control.

Reform is essential Addressing officers at the session in Coventry, the minister explained that collaboration will play a key part in delivering the government’s vision for police reform.

He said that while merging forces – to create “regional super forces” – is not planned, forces cannot operate in silos.

“As I’ve said before, the era of 43 independent policing fiefdoms is over. Forces need to work together to save money,

improve resilience and strengthen the fight against serious and cross-boundary crime.”

Mr Herbert explained that police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – directly elected representatives who will help drive priorities – will have a public mandate to drive out costs and maximise investment in policing.

“By attending this third national collaboration event, you are demonstrating the desire to ensure that forces work better together. We all know that collaboration has far greater potential. It’s time to change gear, and make it happen.”

said: “We want to get London 2012 tickets into the hands of enthusiastic sports fans so that our venues are packed to the rafters at games time and pro-

vide a fantastic atmosphere for the athletes.

“The message is loud and clear – ticket touts are not welcome and will face large fines.”

Touts won’t spoil olympics

can enjoy. It will not be spoiled by ticket touts.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison said: “We do not want our games blighted by touts.

My officers are working now to make the Olympics as hostile environment as possible for them, and increasing the penalty will help by sending a clear warning.

“Touts are part of organised criminal networks, often involved in other crimes, and we are committed to dismantling them layer by layer.

“We have sent out warning letters to those who may try to illegally sell Olympic Games tickets, to warn them their card is marked and we are watching.”

Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe,

PHOTO: HOME OFFICE

NEWS

New code of practice for CCTV and ANPR

A consultation on a new code of practice governing the use of CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems has been launched, announced Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire.

Members of the public and operators of these systems can have their say on a range of proposals to make the use of this technology more proportionate and effective.

The consultation is the first step towards establishing a formal code of practice as promised in the Government’s Protection of Freedoms Bill.

The proposals include: • Establishing a checklist of actions to be carried out by CCTV operators before installing new cameras to check whether they are absolutely necessary • Developing industry standards for equipment to ensure it is reliable, effective and gathers images that are of sufficient quality and in a useable format • Improving public knowledge about systems in communities through consultation by police

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March / April 2011

and local authorities and better public information • Considering whether further guidance is needed on how long data collected by CCTV and ANPR should be retained.

Minister James Brokenshire said: “CCTV and ANPR systems play a vital role in the prevention and detection of crime. However, it is important they are used in a way that does not invade lawabiding people’s privacy or undermine the public’s confidence in them.

“That’s why we are establishing this code and that’s why we are asking the public what they think should be in it. Alongside this, we will appoint a new commissioner to monitor the code and ensure it is effective.”

The code would be introduced on an incremental basis, with local authorities and police required to have due regard to it straightaway. The Government will consider whether the code should be extended to other organisations, such as businesses and private security firms, in due course.

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NEWS PHOTO: GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE

ness of the law around sexual offences and challenge attitudes of abuse within teenage relationships • More training for key frontline professionals, including doctors, nurses and health visitors, on identifying and dealing with violence against women • Sustainable central funding for front-line services including rape crisis centres and independent domestic violence advisors, and four years of funding for the National Domestic Violence Helpline.

The British Crime Survey reports that every year more than one million women experience domestic abuse and one

Action plan to end violence against women On the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day the Home Office published the Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls – Action Plan, alongside the Government’s response to Baroness Stern’s review into the handling of rape complaints.

The review laid out a concerted strategy to address all the key issues surrounding violence against women and girls, many of whom are forced to remain in a violent relationship much longer than they should do for lack of alternatives.

Home Secretary Theresa May said: “International Women’s Day is an excellent opportunity to highlight the many ways women are making a positive impact in this country and around the world.

“I want to see an end to all forms of violence against women and girls. Our comprehensive and detailed action plan sets out how we are going to tackle these crimes – supporting those at risk, helping victims and ensuring offenders are brought to justice.

“Most importantly, we need to prevent these crimes occurring in the first place. That is why we are challenging and, where necessary, working to change attitudes and behaviours.”

Baroness Stern said: “I welcome the Government’s response to the recommendations in my report. Particularly in a time of financial stringency, it is good that the Government recognises the importance of a specialist and supportive response to rape victims.”

Baroness Stern was commissioned in 2009 to conduct an independent review into how rape complaints are han-

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dled by public authorities. She was asked to consider how to encourage more victims to report rape; how to improve the response of the criminal justice system; the conviction rate; and how to build confidence and satisfaction in the handling of rape cases.

The detailed action plan follows the Home Office’s announcement of £28 million of funding until 2015 for tackling violence against women and girls and the Ministry of Justice announcement of more than £10.5 million of funding for three years for rape-crisis services.

The action plan focuses on four key areas: the prevention of violence, including reducing repeat victimisation; the provision of support; the bringing together of groups to work in partnership; and action to reduce risk by ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice.

Key actions from the plan include: • Making data on regional levels of violence against women – including domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking – more accessible to ensure resources are targeted to where they are most needed • New research aimed at countering the myth that false allegations of rape are common and an independent consultation on the measurement of rape conviction rates • A new national stalking group to support the work of the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service in improving the police response to stalking and ensuring robust prosecutions • Campaigns to raise aware-

in four women will be affected by domestic abuse. More than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted and 60,000 women raped, and more than one in twenty women will be stalked.

An additional concern is that some spouses are forced to stay in abusive relationships because they are in the country on a spousal visa and have “no recourse to public funds” meaning they are unable to access support services during the two-year probationary period.

However, victims of domestic violence in the country on a spousal visa are currently able to access some support services via a pilot programme, known as the Sojourner Proj-

ect, which started in November 2009.

Between December 2009 and January 2011, a total of 587 women and 358 children have been supported through the pilot; the permanent plan will come into effect next year.

Following a successful pilot project, the plans announced mean that these victims will be able to access services to ensure they are not forced to remain in violent relationships.

Access will be for a strictly limited period while the victim gathers evidence and makes a claim for residence based on the domestic violence and the UK Border Agency considers the application.

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March / April 2011

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CONSTABULARY 3

FORCE NEWS

South Wales, North Yorkshire, Lancashire & Cheshire

Wales and NI police team up South Wales Police got help from 100 Police Service of Northern Ireland officers for the recent European qualifying football match between England and Wales in Cardiff – one of the biggest football matches in the history of the Millennium Stadium.

The teaming up of officers from both forces was also about gaining experience of policing large-scale sporting events, in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics.

South Wales Police Match Commander, Chief Superintendent Alun Thomas, said: “It

was brilliant to welcome our colleagues from Northern Ireland to Cardiff.

“The Police Service of Northern Ireland officers made a significant contribution to what was a very successful event. It provided an opportunity for officers from both forces to learn and share best practice.”

Updates and crime-prevention messages relating to the match were posted onto the @swpolice twitter, and there was a lot of interaction with fans and residents on the social-media site. @conroberts tweeted: “Great twitter updates today, keep up the good work.” @thinknuts

Focusing on rural crime Police across the Hambleton and Richmondshire Safer Neighbourhood Command stepped up the fight against all aspects of rural crime with the launch of Operation Wagtail, which involves officers undertaking proactive patrols to prevent people living and working in the area becoming victims of crime.

Operation Wagtail builds on other successful rural policing campaigns in the county, which saw dramatic results, with many people brought to justice and significant reductions in crime.

Superintendent Amanda Oliver said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to build on the eight per cent reduction in crime that we have already achieved this year.

“We have been listening to the views of our communities, who have expressed concerns about thefts from sheds and burglaries in rural areas, which is why we are focusing our attention on these issues.

“The recent restructure and shift review within North Yorkshire Police means that we will have officers on duty in the right places at the right times to deal with those individuals travelling into our county from other parts of the country to commit crime.”

Inspector David Murray explained: “The operation has

4 CONSTABULARY

two main priorities: firstly, to reassure people living and working in rural areas that we are dealing with the offenders who blight their lives; and secondly, to send a strong message to anyone intent on committing offences that their actions will not be tolerated and we deal with them robustly.

“As well as targeting incidents of rural theft and burglary, officers also focus on those individuals who trespass on private land under the guise of poaching.

“These people often use the excuse of poaching or walking the dog to check out farm buildings and other premises; this repeated trespass causes landowners great frustration.”

Sergeant Stuart Grainger added: “Operation Wagtail not only involves police officers and police community support officers but also vital support from members of the Countrywatch Partnership and other local Watch schemes across the district.

“In addition to undertaking patrols to deter offenders, officers and PCSOs will treat repeat victims as a priority to offer them support and advice.”

Inspector David Murray, Superintendent Amanda Oliver and Sergeant Stuart Grainger are pictured above.

tweeted: “Nice job on policing arrangements, stadium atmosphere was great.”

Feedback from an England supporter also commented on the friendly and helpful manner of policing, which made the game a more enjoyable experience.

And the teamwork continued with Metropolitan Police officers making seven arrests during an Operation Podium swoop on illegal ticket touting in Cardiff, which is part of continuing efforts to tackle organised ticketing criminal networks in the build up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Top accolade for service Lancashire Constabulary has become one of only two police forces in the country to have achieved the Government’s Customer Service Excellence Award.

The constabulary received this national recognition for its commitment to providing a high-quality service to residents in the county.

The Standard was developed by the Government to recognise organisations that are firmly focused on customer satisfaction and who go the extra mile to deliver the best service possible.

In order to achieve the accolade, the constabulary had to demonstrate that it understood customer needs, took timely action to deal with calls for assistance and delivered the service it promised to individuals.

It also had to show that staff members were polite and friendly, dealt effectively with problems and that performance was closely managed.

The award lasts for three years but the constabulary will face assessments every twelve

months to ensure it is continuing to meet the high standards demanded for the national recognition.

Deputy Chief Constable Chris Weigh said: “Lancashire Constabulary is one of the country’s top-performing police forces, a position we are extremely keen to sustain.

“That’s one of the reasons why we decided to work towards this standard and examine every area of our business to make sure that the service we are delivering

is meeting – if not exceeding – customer expectations.

“We are delighted to have attained the high standards demanded in order to achieve this national recognition and we are also extremely proud of the fact that Lancashire is once again at the forefront of policing and one of the first forces nationally to gain this accreditation.

“We aren’t complacent however, and realise that we don’t get it right every time; there is still more we can do. Our aim

now is to sustain and improve on our performance to ensure that residents across Lancashire continue to receive the consistently high-quality service they expect and deserve.”

Deputy Chief Constable Chris Weigh and Chief Supt Tim Jacques are pictured with the certificate. Behind them are PCSOs Gaz Westhead and Dave Underwood, ICT client support officer Gordon Blogg, Citizen Focus Bureau assistant Laura Johnson, PC Laura Hornby and PCSO Barbara Gornall.

Lockdown makes roads safer Officers from Cheshire Constabulary joined neighbouring forces across the North West and central England in a large-scale operation to crackdown on those criminals who use the road networks to commit crime, traffic offences or engage in antisocial behaviour.

Over 75 officers plus dog handlers, officials from VOSA, UK Border Agency, HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work & Pensions took part in the operation, working together in an intelligence-led strike that targeted travelling criminals using the region’s motorways and A roads of South Cheshire

and North Staffordshire.

Officers from the North West Police Motorway Group and Central Motorway Police Group utilised technology, such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) that recognises illegal or stolen vehicles and can pinpoint vehicles that are linked to crime.

The main focus of the operation was to intercept those who use the roads to carry out crimes and to detect and deter motorists driving unlawfully.

Cars without valid roadfund licences, MOT or insurance were towed away and those driving unlawfully without licences were dealt with robust-

ly and had their cars removed.

Cheshire’s Inspector Liz Cunningham said: “We always proactively use our resources and technology to arrest criminals and deal with offenders appropriately but, during Operation Lockdown, the public are far more likely to notice our activity.

“We had a successful day and are achieving our aim to make our road networks and communities safer by denying criminals the use of our roads.”

Arrests included a variety of offences that ranged from money laundering to immigration offences. A number of fixed-penalty notices for vehicle

March / April 2011

defects and motoring offences were issued, and vehicles that did not comply with legal requirements were towed away.

Over £11,000 found in a vehicle was seized pending further investigation into suspected money-laundering offences.

Inspector Derek Roberts of the Central Motorway Policing Group said: “Those individuals who believe they can flout the law by using illegal vehicles to commit crime in our areas have felt the long arm of the law today and helped make our motorway networks safer and remove illegal drivers from the roads.”

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Lancashire, Cumbria, Fife & South Wales

PERSONALITIES

PC’s projects win award Community Beat Manager PC Emma Turner (pictured centre), whose crime-prevention projects helped improve her local community, has been awarded the High Sheriff’s Shrievalty Rosebowl.

The success of three of Emma’s projects impressed the judges after they led to a reduction in criminal damage, antisocial behaviour and theft. She used Lancashire Partnership Against Crime (LANPAC) funding

to purchase two portable CCTV cameras that could be issued to vulnerable members of the community.

The cameras proved extremely useful in providing reassurance to residents and led to the number of reports of criminal damage in the area falling.

A trip to Camelot, organised

by Emma for local children with records of good behaviour, led to a 20% reduction in reported antisocial behaviour last summer.

She also applied for LANPAC

funding to purchase security devices for vulnerable members of the community. This included tamper-proof screws, UV property-marking kits, shed alarms and a “memo minder” for a pensioner with dementia who had been targeted by distraction burglars.

With the aid of an infrared beam, the device played a recorded message to prompt the woman to put her security chain on and ask for identification whenever she went to answer the front door.

The items assisted in reducing the number of thefts reported and prevented residents from becoming victims of crime.

Emma said: “I’m really pleased to receive this award.

LANPAC funding is often vitally important when looking at crime-prevention initiatives and reducing antisocial behaviour.

“We have had some really good results from the projects that we have carried out and the community has really benefited from this funding.”

Wales and Duchess of Cornwall had shown an interest in the role of police family liaison.

“It tends to be an area of work that has not had much recognition. The fact is that it’s

a critical role, not only supporting families at one of the most difficult times they face but also working as a key part of the investigating team,” he said.

“It takes a certain individual

to be a family liaison officer. It’s a challenging and demanding role. Each of the officers present today has worked on varying and complex cases and each has a poignant story to tell.”

Prince thanks officers

Family liaison officers (FLOs) from across the UK were recognised for their outstanding work at a special reception at Clarence House, hosted by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Among those honoured by Prince Charles were three Cumbria police officers.

PC Richard Bowman (pictured right of flowers) from the Road Policing Unit based in Carlisle has been involved with the families of fatal road-traffic collisions, including the school coach crash on the A66 in May last year.

DC Sandra Thomas (pictured next to Richard) volunteered to be the FLO for the family of PC Bill Barker, who lost his life

when a bridge collapsed under him during the severe flooding in November 2009.

DI Doug Marshall, the force FLO co-ordinator, was involved with the families who lost relatives as a result of the shootings by Derrick Bird last June.

Chief Constable Craig Mackey said: “I am very proud of the way all my officers and staff have pulled together in some of the most exceptional and challenging set of incidents that Cumbria has had to deal with.

“The role of FLO is not one that is widely publicised and yet they have been at the forefront of supporting the community and those families who have been caught up in these traumatic events.”

Speaking about her role as the FLO for PC Bill Barker’s relatives, DC Sandra Thomas said: “When the incident happened, obviously it was very emotional; we were all upset about it.

“It’s not very often in your career you hear a shout of ‘officer down’, which means an officer is in serious trouble. We all rushed to the scene and, unfortunately, it was quite obvious that Bill was lost into the sea.

“I volunteered because I knew they’d need a FLO and I’d known Bill, who was a family liaison officer himself, for all of his service.”

Commander Simon Foy, lead on family liaison for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said he was delighted the Prince of

Police cash helps club Big-hearted Fife police officers and staff have again shown their support and commitment to local Benarty community issues by donating £400 to the Meedies Mountain Bike Club at Lochore Meadows Country Park.

Sergeant Stuart Clark said: “Officers at Benarty have been fully involved with Community Education Worker Mary Brogan and Andy McGrath of the Outdoor Education Team, who have played a key role in the development of biking initiatives for young people over the past two years.

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“These include the development of a mountain-bike skills loop and network of trails and a new bike club based at the park. Their efforts are certainly now bearing fruit within our local community and these amenities are well-used by our local youngsters.

“The money my staff and I contributed is as a result of profits from our station canteen and is being donated to provide the club with funding to assist in either equipment or travelling costs, or as the club feels the money should be utilised for the benefit of club members.

“As this is a voluntary organi-

sation, I fully appreciate how hard it can be to raise funds and it is only through the hard work and commitment of the committee that this group has been able to progress so successfully.

“Officers are integrated as part of the Benarty community and have strong links with Lochore Meadows Country Park and, as such, are happy to be able to assist this organisation.”

Mary Brogan commented: “The community police officers liaise with our workers on a regular basis, which I feel is invaluable and an integral part in addressing some of the issues within our communities.

“They have fully supported all of the youth-work initiatives we have undertaken with young people in our area. This donation is much appreciated and has come at a great time as money is tight so it will enable our club to continue to run whilst allowing us to organise, plan and further implement our biking activities.”

Sgt Stuart Clark is pictured handing over the cheque, with Inspector Ken Stickings and PCs Scott, Chrystal, Shannon and Smith.

Youth mission to Africa PCSO Sam Johnson of South Wales Police will soon be taking annual leave from her beat patrols to go on a trip with 20 youngsters from across Cardiff to Naturena, near Johannesburg, on a youth-mission project to build a nursery and houses.

In a project that has been running for the last 17 years, Rumney Chapel members have been fundraising and are now close to their target of £20,000.

Community Pastor Mike Thomas, pictured with Sam, said: “The mission is all about helping people and providing the youngsters with a rich cultural experience that will change their lives and perspective on the world.

“The youngsters play an active part in community work in Cardiff and are eager to take this ‘can do’ approach to South Africa – building homes, building lives, and building futures.”

Marie Postans, 17, is taking part, she said: “We are all very

excited about travelling to South Africa, learning about a different culture, and helping people. It’s going to be a life-changing experience and we are going to work as a team to help make a difference for the people in Naturena.”

PCSO Sam Johnson said: “The trip is going to be a fantastic experience for the youngsters, and a lot of hard work. It will further develop their social skills, requiring them to work together and solve problems in difficult conditions.”

March / April 2011

CONSTABULARY 5

PERSONALITIES

Metropolitan, Lancashire, South Wales & Surrey

One hour for heroes Police staff associations, representing the vast majority of officers and employees in the Police Service, launched Operation Raise A £Million – a national campaign to raise funds for Help for Heroes – as seen in the photo at Scotland Yard.

Officers and police staff are being asked to consider three ways of fundraising: payroll giving – donate an hour’s pay; organising or taking part in a sponsored event; or buying specially-commissioned items.

Headed by Assistant Commissioner Ian McPherson of the Metropolitan Police Service, the

initiative builds on the interest in Help for Heroes created by the sale of “Police” pin badges resulting in almost £100,000 so far being raised towards the target.

He said: “Help for Heroes has captured the hearts of the nation and many officers and staff have been happy to support the cause.

By co-ordinating the effort across the country, we hope to reach that magic million.

“Soldiers and police officers both work to protect people from harm; we believe that many police officers and staff will join in Operation Raise A £Million and help those men and women who have given so

Officers and staff from Lancashire Constabulary, including an assistant chief constable, a divisional commander and three superintendents, raised around £2,000 for The Prince’s Trust.

The sponsored team event saw 29 participants undertake a variety of disciplines – including running, cycling, rowing and swimming – to work towards a target distance of 500km.

However, efforts such as running from Blackpool Police Station to the constabulary’s Hutton HQ (30km) and cycling from Heysham port to Blackpool airport via Fleetwood (56km), meant that the total combined kilometres of the team smashed the target and reached 728km (452 miles) – and one person cycled 100km of this total.

Chief Superintendent Richard Debicki said: “I am delighted by the efforts of so many who gave up their free time to get involved with the challenge, leading to us exceeding the kilometre target we set ourselves.

much on our behalf.

“Everyone who donates an hour’s pay will receive a limitededition pin badge in acknowledgement of their gift. We’ve also commissioned some ‘police officer bears’ representing different

ranks of officer and expect them to be a popular purchase.”

Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, commented: “Police officers throughout England and Wales never forget the

extreme sacrifices our armed forces make in order to protect our nation and make the world a safer place for all.

“This campaign is particularly poignant for the Police Service as thousands of ex-armed forces

are now serving police officers.

This allows all of us in the service to publicly recognise and thank those in the military who are still on active duty or who have been injured, physically or mentally, whilst serving their country.”

President of the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales, Derek Barnett, said: “Police officers are proud to be associated with our brave military colleagues who have served their country with distinction and the Superintendents’ Association is delighted to support this excellent initiative with Help for Heroes.”

President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, commented: “Our armed forces make a huge contribution on behalf of our country every day in really challenging and difficult circumstances.

“We owe so much to these courageous men and women and Britain should feel incredibly proud of them.”

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6 CONSTABULARY

of money for the charity.

“The constabulary has a long association with The Prince’s Trust as we recognise the positive impact that their work has on the communities within Lancashire.”

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South Wales Police PCSOs, together with community partners and local businesses, took on the flume ride at Pentwyn Leisure Centre, Cardiff, and raised over £1,000 for the Action Group charity, which is fundraising to build a sensory room. The very tired but super-fit team, led by PCSO Emma Watts, managed 736 flume trips.

Emma said: “Last year was a big fundraising year but we are determined to raise more money this time around. The flume challenge brought the community together, and was a good

start in raising funds for a very good local cause.”

Emma and the team will be following this Hawaiian-style challenge with a bike ride and then a series of community fun days.

Pictured are PCSOs Emma Watts, Judith Bowen and Leslie Hilditch, Kay Hughes Jones from Hollies School and Action Group Trustee Maria Carey.

On 7 May the team will be involved in the Pontprennau Fete, a Harry Potter-themed Pentwyn Community Day on 4 June and a USA Independencethemed Llanishen Community Day on 2 July.

Trailwalker challenge PCs Mike Swankie and Keely Copland and DC Pascale Middlebrook of Surrey Police are taking on the Trailwalker 100km non-stop trek along the South Downs to raise money for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Starting on 16 July, this gruelling walk has to be completed within 30 hours. This is the second time team leader Mike has

March / April 2011

taken part and he is determined to beat his 2009 time of 22 hours 44 minutes.

He said: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, both physically and mentally. At the end, I swore I would never do it again, but once the pain went away I realised how proud I was to complete the challenge and raise so much money for two very good causes. Now I’m ready to take it on again.”

www.constabulary.org.uk

Northamptonshire, Surrey & Cleveland

New fingerprint device The compact unit includes a fully-integrated camera and lighting system to generate a complete 360-degree image of a fingerprint from a cartridge surface, in the format needed for input to the automated fingerprint identification system.

Academics and forensic experts from across the UK and as far away as Norway attended the launch at Northamptonshire Police HQ. At the launch, Chief Constable Adrian Lee opened proceedings and spoke of the device’s introduction as being of national and international importance.

He said: “To put this into context, the development of this device will serve to improve the trust and confidence of the people we serve. “A key part of improving trust and confidence is crime reduction, and anything that helps detect offenders is obviously a key part of this. The link between developments in forensic science aiding detection of offenders, and trust and confidence, is clear.�

He went on to speak about the need for investment in new techniques such as CERA, and the huge potential there is in

Surrey Police is set to become the first force in the UK to pilot a mobile phone application that will enable users to engage with their local neighbourhood teams.

The interactive app will allow people to see what action their local officers are carrying out and what crime is happening in their area. The application is currently in development and being piloted in the Runnymede area, with a view to being rolled out across the county if it is successful.

The Smartphone app has been developed for Surrey Police by Multizone Limited, an independent UK-based social and mobile software specialist.

The police staff and officers taking part in the pilot are using phones and software provided

by Multizone. The intention is to then make it available for free public download from the Google Android market and from the Apple iPhone App Store.

Plans for the application include the ability for members of

the public to view details on who their local officers are and how to contact them, where their nearest police station is and when their next Neighbourhood Panel meeting is taking place.

It is hoped they will also be able to see crime data where they are located combined with updates posted on Twitter showing police interventions in that place.

Other features in development are the ability for people to comment on local policing updates and vote on the local team’s neighbourhood priorities.

It is hoped those comments and ratings will be displayed in the application via Twitter and anyone using a mobile phone or a Web browser can view it and openly comment.

Police officers and other authorised users will also be able to send updates on their daily activity, which are posted to Twitter.

The application is supported by the Home Office, which has appointed Surrey Police as one of five trailblazer forces across

the country that will develop and work on innovative ways to deliver greater transparency locally.

Chief Superintendent Gavin Stephens said: “The force is currently undergoing a number of changes in the way neighbourhood policing is delivered and we are always looking for new ways for people to engage with their local teams. “This is a fantastic opportunity and shows we are looking to utilise new technology and social media to help us meet both the demands of modern-day policing and the demands of the public. “Surrey Police is an innovative force and although this application is only a pilot at this stage, which will no doubt present challenges for us, we are very excited about the potential it has. “The public use our services differently now and in a time when police budgets are stretched, this application offers a simple and cost-effective way of helping us engage with the public.�

developing the technique to go beyond spent cartridges.

The device will undergo further testing and will then be sold to police forces across the world.

Dr John Bond’s pioneering technique was named as one of Time Magazine’s top 50 inventions of the year in 2008 and has recently won recognition from BBC Focus magazine.

John Bond said that since the technique was devised, police from all over the world have been sending cartridges from unsolved murders for analysis.

PHOTO: NORTHAMPTON CHRONICLE AND ECHO

A pioneering new forensic device has been launched following a new technique devised by Northamptonshire Police Scientific Support Manager Dr John Bond, who invented a machine that extracts latent fingerprints from discharged cartridge cases.

Consolite Forensics, the company that developed the device, has branded it the “CERA� (Cartridge Electrostatic Recovery and Analysis) and has conceived a selfcontained laboratory machine that reveals fingerprints with minimal operator intervention.

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Members of the public in Cleveland were given the chance to ask a police officer at the reins of the force Mounted Section everything he knows about the much-loved animals and how they are trained to help fight crime.

Sergeant Paul Johnson, the latest in a number of officers to take part in the Community Click initiative, answered questions on everything from the breed of the horses and how they are looked after, to how they help in crowd situations and assist in making arrests during an online Web chat.

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CONSTABULARY 7

EXCLUSIVE

Shadow Home Secretary interview

Home Secretary has gone too far too fast

Christopher Locke interviews Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper - who says there’s a risk of creating a perfect storm as it’s unfair that when the 20% cuts mean losing 12,500 officers and 15,000 support staff, the Government appears to be picking a fight with the police. He asks her about Labour’s position on crime and key policing issues

A

s editor of Constabulary magazine for over 30 years, I have never seen so much PR material sent to us from all sorts of bodies, committees, think tanks and political groups wishing to discuss the police and, in particular, the Hutton and Winsor reports.

They all want us to interview them and write about these issues so the first question I asked Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was if she thought that this was an orchestrated campaign against the police and her reply was: “They talk about ‘pitch rolling’ so they try to get lots of stories in the newspapers relating to things they want to cut and things they want to change and they seem to think it helps to have this kind of story in the papers – I don’t – and I don’t think it is responsible to hear the Prime Minister describe the police as “inefficient and badly managed”.

“He clearly doesn’t understand the huge amount of work the police do under an awful lot of pressure, the immense improvements that have taken place and the good work that is already happening.

“Chief constables are being put in an impossible position with the combination of the attacks on morale on one hand and the 20% cut in resources on the other.”

If you were in power would you make the police a special case as one would expect?

Cutting 20% with the steepest cuts in the first two years is cutting too much too fast and it is wrong to hit the police that heavily. This is too heavy a hit for the police and I don’t think this is what local communities want.

Making the deepest cuts in the first few years makes it harder as there are changes you can make to get efficiency savings, perhaps three or four years down the line, with changes you plan and do properly now.

To get really sustainable efficiency savings, there are a lot of things you can’t do instantly in year one and if you make cuts too quickly you will hit the frontline services and lose jobs – and

8 CONSTABULARY

then started again, they were able to take very strong and fast action.

As I said, ASBOs are not the right thing to use in every situation but they do serve a useful purpose in some cases and I am very concerned if they are removed without some alternative put in their place. We oppose the removal of ASBOs unless they come forward with some new measures that are better but, at the moment, we are not convinced they will.

that is clearly what’s happening in a lot of places across the country.

The work that Alan Johnson did showed that you could make savings of about a billion pounds on the police budget, but phased over a series of years. The Government is to cut two billion pounds with the steepest cuts in the first two years; so that is the scale of the contrast.

It’s not a good time to make savage policing cuts when the need for police officers is expected to escalate now There are new pressures on the police all the time, with an increase in demonstrations, the possibility of an increase in terrorism and also things like the increase in cybercrime, which is a new emerging challenge.

The police need to be able to deal with all these things and the risk is that with so many police forces with recruitment freezes, are we going to lose a whole generation of newly trained officers?

What did Labour achieve in relation to policing?

I believe the most important thing was the drop in crime – to have crime drop by over 40% is hugely

important. I think that was partly due to the support we gave the police in recruiting extra police officers and introducing police community support officers; and partly due to the work the police did working with communities and also on crime prevention.

I think we did good work in encouraging and supporting work between the police and different organisations and agencies, such as local councils.

We also did a lot of good work working with youths and addressing antisocial behaviour, which I don’t think many had talked about before that, it was just seen as low-level crime and disorder and not really a problem but, actually, repeat antisocial behaviour is a huge problem for the victims who find their lives have been made a complete misery as a result.

cases where ASBOs have made a big difference and have been the right action to take.

Removing ASBOs means you don’t have the same strong action that you can take and will only have civil action in its place.

I think it’s a mistake and weakens the options available for the police. Lots of officers I spoke to

recently said they thought it was a problem to remove ASBOs and leave nothing in their place.

One police officer in my constituency who thought they had been successful told me of cases where they had used ASBOs and the antisocial behaviour stopped and in other cases, where it stopped for a while but

“I THINK THERESA MAY HAS PICKED A FIGHT WITH THE POLICE”

According to research, ASBOs have not been that successful.

I don’t think that is right. I was talking to police officers earlier today and also in my constituency a couple of weeks ago about ASBOs and, whilst I know they are not the answer to every problem and there have been cases where breeches have not been followed up, there are many

March / April 2011

What aspects of policing were you not satisfied with and which would you change if you were still in power?

We should have started neighbourhood policing earlier. I think it has been really effective but, looking at it in my constituency, it has been a great success in the last two or three years, which is relatively recent so we should have started it earlier.

I also think there were areas where there was too much focus on too many targets but I believe the work on the policing pledge and focusing police on what matters to people in their areas was really important, but that was a relatively recent change as well.

I am keen to do more on reoffending and domestic violence.

Rape convictions went up, which was good, but we still need to do more. We still have a long way to go as it is still an area where there are serious problems in terms of the number of rapes that go unsolved. We also want to give victims confidence in the system, I think that is very important.

Tell us what you would have liked to have done but didn’t.

We were right to take the approach “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” but I think we could have done more on reoffending. A lot was done but that is an area we would like to see more focus on in the future.

We also did some good work looking at having community courts and community payback schemes but you have to have the resources so you cannot see that as just a cost-cutting measure and, if you don’t have

www.constabulary.org.uk

EXCLUSIVE proper support to make sure it actually happens, it could end up being counter-productive.

Overall, we saw some big improvements and some very good changes. As a result of the overall plan that Alistair Darling set out, we said we had a need for greater efficiency in the police and then Alan Johnson set out proposals to do that.

What are your thoughts on the proposals for police pay cuts and pension reform?

It is important that this is looked at as a whole and not done in a piecemeal way. My worry is that the Government pre-empted both reports, for example, Theresa May’s speech was made the week before the release of the Winsor Review.

If you are going to make reforms to terms and conditions, pensions and pay, you have to do that through negotiation. You have to work with the police or the public sector in the way Alan Johnson did when he made a lot of reforms around public-sector pensions, which he did with lots of negotiation, discussion and debate.

That is the approach reforms should take. I think Theresa May has picked a fight with the police and I don’t understand it.

There is a risk of creating a perfect storm – it seems deeply unfair that at the same time you are seeing 20% cuts that mean 12,500 officers lost and big reductions in support staff, there’s what seems to be the

Government picking a fight with the police.

We have seen government press officers putting stories in the papers attacking police or picking out negative individual examples then implying they are a general case.

I don’t think that is the way to handle this kind of thing, I don’t think it is responsible and I don’t think it is fair at a time that the police are being asked to do more and being overstretched as a result of the cuts to simultaneously have newspaper stories suggesting they are not doing a good job.

What do you think about the proposals on increasing the police retirement age to 60?

I think the approach to publicsector pensions needs to take into account the different circumstances of every publicsector group so they need to understand the different kinds of jobs people do and, particularly, the police.

We think it is important to do things through negotiation so my approach would not be to preempt that kind of negotiation.

However, we recognize that we are all living longer so we have to take account of that over time but you also have to think about people’s ability to plan for the changes.

Some of the things they are considering in terms of the state retirement pension will create problems, particularly for people in their mid-fifties who are

“CHIEF CONSTABLES ARE IN AN IMPOSSIBLE POSITION WITH THE ATTACKS ON MORALE ON ONE HAND AND THE 20% CUT IN RESOURCES ON THE OTHER”

suddenly expected to work two years longer before they can get their state pension.

That is much harder for them to plan as they have so little time, whereas it’s a completely different situation for someone in their twenties or thirties. As I said before, you have to do this through negotiation and discussion.

In terms of policing, you have to consider the impact on recruitment. For example, officers in Luton told me recently that the issue for them is, depending on what changes come in, is it worth it for them to stay in the police at all given the other jobs they could get, say commuting to London and getting private-sector jobs.

There is a real impact on morale and recruitment so you have to take all of those things into account and not just have a blanket approach.

Do you think we are doing enough on counter-terrorism?

I think there are considerable concerns about the idea of cutting £150 million from the counter-terrorism budget at a time that you are cutting so much from the police generally and everything is so overstretched. It will be harder to suddenly respond to a new threat as you don’t have that same resilience.

The approach that has been taken by coalition has been somewhat shambolic, with the need to appease Nick Clegg they have ended up with a kind of “son of control orders” but in a form that needs more resources in surveillance but it’s not clear that more resources will be provided. There have

also been problems with the emergency legislation not being ready.

We would like to be in a position to support what the Government does on counterterrorism, we don’t think it should be a party-political issue but, to do that, we need to be reassured that there will be sufficient resource in the right places.

The thing about counterterrorism work is that it is not immediately visible policing but it is immensely important in terms of protecting people.

We need to make sure that people don’t think front-line policing is only neighbourhood policing as there are a huge number of officers and support staff doing important work on preventing and solving crimes or gathering evidence, which is not immediately visible.

Tell us your view on the issues surrounding stop and search, detention and the powers of arrest.

There were some areas, such as stop and search, that in some cases were not being used in the spirit of the original intention of the legislation and much more widely used than it should have been. Alan Johnson had already taken such action to cut down the use of stop and search and now we will support sensible new measures.

Door-to-door enquiries: Yvette Cooper with Insp Ian Williams. Top photo: on the beat in Worcester

www.constabulary.org.uk

Surely it was your government that let the police continue this. Why was this abuse of power not quickly addressed?

Alan Johnson did take action to address it and deal with it.

Also, the approach we have always tried to take is to make sure the police have the powers they need to do things but they should also have the proper checks and balances in the system.

I think the approach the Government is taking is to remove powers for police to do things but also remove some of the checks and balances.

Should non-violent offenders not be imprisoned and dealt with in other ways and should some sentences be tougher?

There is a mixture, for example, there are some rape cases where sentences handed down are not strong enough but, equally, there are cases where people could be dealt with in the community and this should be so if it’s feasible.

The principles you have to adopt are: is there appropriate punishment that shows justice is being done for a crime; is there proper protection for the public if you have got a serious offender; and are you doing everything you can for rehabilitation and preventing reoffending in the future.

It’s about getting these three things right, and you can address all three things if you have a strong community payback scheme for some types of offences. However, there are other kinds of offences where we should be clear that prison is the right thing to do.

It would be good to have a debate about this as I think people have got to have confidence that justice is being done and that there is a proper punishment for a crime, so that has got to be part of the framework.

In what areas do you have a particular interest or concern?

I am particularly interested in some of the issues around working with teenagers, where teenagers are the victims of crime and not just seeing them as perpetrators of crime. I am also very keen on thinking about the long-term vision around policing.

We are also very interested in getting support for the victims of crime and areas surrounding the next steps to deal with antisocial behaviour, which is still a persistent challenge in communities and, whilst a lot of progress has been made, we need to do more to address the future issues.

I see my role as working very

closely with the police so I really know what the police think about the issues. There was a line in the Winsor Review that said “this is the highest calibre of police officers ever in our history”, and that is really important and should be the starting point for the debate.

You can have all sorts of reforms, and I am sure a lot of reforms in different areas will be needed, but let’s start from the right place, which is huge respect for the work the police are doing right now and understanding an awful lot is being left to the police.

This is a sort of perfect storm, the Government is making huge cuts to the police yet at the same time having this media attack on the police and reducing police powers with things like the DNA database, the vetting and barring issue, and removing ASBOs. To do all these three things at the same time and to take away a lot of the prevention work is taking risks with the fight against crime – it seems to me that the Government is turning its back against the fight against crime and, in the end, it is the local communities that will pay the price.

Full interview online Space did not allow for the whole of Constabulary’s exclusive interview with the Shadow Home Secretary here but it can be read at www.constabulary. org.uk This online version sees Yvette Cooper talk about her concerns with the new police commissioners, police overtime cuts, merging of police forces and agencies, drugs and alcohol, knife and gun crime, rape and domestic violence, and a loophole in the revised vetting and barring procedures.

If you have any views on the issues raised in this interview please email the editor at chrislocke@constabulary.org.uk

March / April 2011

CONSTABULARY 9

WOMEN POLICE

Senior Women In Policing & Scottish Women’s Development

Leading change in women’s policing As the keynote speaker at this year’s Senior Women In Policing (SWIP) conference in Norfolk, Home Secretary Theresa May highlighted police accountability and the underrepresentation of women in senior policing as priorities.

She reinforced the message that elected crime commissioners would enhance the Police Service, while insisting that “they will not interfere with operational independence”.

“There is a need for local accountability and that is why police authorities are being replaced,” said Mrs May, who was also speaking in her role as the Minister for Women and Equalities.

“We want to encourage a wide variety of candidates, including women and those from ethnic minorities, and hope that it gets the public to become more involved in their neighbourhoods and take some responsibility.”

Stressing the need to help women reach the higher ranks of the Police Service, she added:

“We need to change the culture and the attitude that prevents women from being appointed to senior positions.

“Both the Government and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) need to make a concerted effort to come up with proposals to increase representation. To assist, we will be increasing paid maternity leave for police officers to 18 weeks.

“These are very challenging times. I won’t pretend it will be easy, but it is necessary and I want to thank you.”

Themes of inspiration Senior officers and police staff from across the UK gathered in Norwich for the annual conference, which was hosted on behalf of ACPO and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland Women’s Forum. The event centred on the themes of inspiration and leadership facing women in policing.

Suffolk’s host, Deputy Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer, launched the conference with a networking evening before it moved on to

a further two days of “thoughtprovoking” talks from an array of speakers.

They included former Essex chief constable and a current HMI, Roger Baker; President of the British Association of Women Policing, Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick of the Metropolitan Police; and Deputy Chief Constable Judith Gillespie from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Interspersed with leadership workshops, the 125 delegates were given an insight into the challenging times ahead for policing leaders.

DCC Cheer said: “It’s a privilege to help lay on such a conference, both personally and on behalf of Suffolk. Female senior and chief officers are underrepresented in the service so it’s important for those who have reached these positions to believe in themselves and the positive differences they can make.

“We aim to ensure they realise their goals and ambitions, while also encouraging them to pass on their experience and knowledge to

staff so that there remains a continuous cycle of dynamic leadership among a wide talent pool.”

Women’s unique qualities Delegates from command teams to specialist operations, and from media to finance, heard key themes focusing on the unique qualities that women can bring to leadership roles and the importance of all organisations and companies to recognise the diverse qualities present in their workforce, while encouraging development and progression.

HMI Roger Baker criticised some forces for failing to identify savings that could be found from collaboration despite being told in 2008 that a “financial tsunami was on its way”. However, he also added that the UK “still has the best police service in the world”.

Norfolk’s Chief Constable Phil Gormley highlighted the successful, ongoing collaborative work being undertaken by his force and Suffolk Constabulary.

“At the beginning, one force felt threatened by the perceived

Chief Constable Phil Gormley take-over ambitions of the other,” said Phil Gormley.

“However, as time has developed and senior and chief officers communicated with each other, the benefits have been easy to see and both forces are in agreement with what is being done, have dedicated resources to it and ensured there is leadership at all levels.”

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick reflected on the changing times in the Police Service and coping mechanisms through “bumpy times” while highlighting that five of the six deputy assistant commissioner posts are currently filled by women.

She said: “I would urge people to get involved in women’s support networks if you want to make change and difference.

This conference was brilliant and just as good as the first one that I attended.”

One delegate, Chief Inspector Gill Wootton from Thames Valley Police, said: “It’s always good to meet other officers and learn lessons and experiences from them.

This conference centred a lot on collaboration projects and so was very useful given the times we are in.

“Mrs Gillespie was particularly inspiring as she gave an insight into the challenges of the PSNI even in today’s world.”

Scottish women’s development

The Scottish Women’s Development Forum is a working group of ACPOS and aims to assist and support the Scottish Police Service to provide a positive working environment that enables everyone to reach their full potential, thereby improving the quality of service delivery to its communities.

The Scottish Women’s Development Forum (WDF) does this by: • Acting as a consultative body on behalf of the Scottish Police Service in relation to gender-equality issues • Considering at least three equality-impact issues developing within ACPOS or force policy annually • Seeking solutions to ensure that there are no barriers to personal and professional development • Taking action to remove any barriers that may prevent female police officers and staff from entering specialist roles and promoted ranks • Monitoring, on a quarterly basis, current organisational change within the Scottish Police Service in context of any risk to fair and equal opportunities.

10 CONSTABULARY

Recent developments The WDF Personal & Professional Development Sub-group continues to develop an extensive programme of development events based on feedback from staff from across the Scottish Police Service.

The annual conference will be held on 1 June 2011 at the Scottish Police College. It will be a packed day of personal and professional development and the annual awards, which

recognise the contributions and achievements of women within the Scottish Police Service, will also be presented at this time.

The WDF Coaching & Mentoring Sub-group has carried out a significant amount of work to develop a mentoring scheme for the Scottish Police Service.

The proposals were approved at ACPOS level and the pilot Jointforce Mentoring Scheme was launched on 1 April 2010.

The scheme was advertised

widely in the three pilot forces – Grampian, Tayside and Fife – and was open to police officers and police staff of any rank or grade (men and women). The pilot scheme ran for six months and it is hoped that the scheme can be rolled out to all the Scottish police forces.

The majority of the other Scottish forces have expressed a keen interest in a mentoring scheme. All materials developed through the joint-force scheme

will be made available to the other Scottish forces if they wish to use the same format to run a local mentoring scheme.

In order to maintain momentum, it was agreed at the last meeting of this sub-group that a second cohort of the Joint-force Mentoring Scheme would run during 2011. The second cohort will include Northern Constabulary, in addition to the three forces already participating in the scheme.

The WDF Performance Subgroup is currently examining statistics regarding the gender breakdown of Road Policing units and authorised firearms officers – these being two areas where there was general acceptance that females were underrepresented – in an effort to identify best practice.

The WDF Communication and Marketing Sub-group is currently redesigning the WDF website and marketing materials, which will be launched later this year.

Promoting gender equality Superintendent Alexander Duncan, chair of the Scottish Women’s Development Forum, said: “It is a great honour to have been the first male deputy chair before becoming chair of the

March / April 2011

WDF in Scotland in 2009, and I am proud of what the forum has achieved since its establishment in 2004.

“I first became involved in the work of the forum because, for me, this isn’t about gender.

For me, it’s about being able to reflect the values and cultures of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Yes, it’s about equality but it’s also about improving our performance and adopting a more customer-focused-service ethos.”

Figures recently released show that Scotland now has a record number of female officers serving in the ranks of the country’s eight police forces, and Superintendent Duncan maintains that the WDF has to take some of the credit for this achievement but says that there is still much to do.

“My vision is that there should be no need for a Women’s Development Forum, no need for its annual conference, no need for its working groups in relation to mentoring; performance; communications and professional development,” continued Superintendent Duncan.

“Why? Because in an organisation that truly promotes

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WOMEN POLICE gender equality, why would we need them? However, the service must earn the right to be trusted in terms of embedding gender equality into all of its working practices before this vision can be realised.

“We must ensure that all women, as well as men, within the service continue to be supported and the mentoring scheme developed by the WDF will help with this. We must also try to ensure that all women, and men, are encouraged to gain the development that

will help them to realise their aspirations.”

During 2010, research was conducted on behalf of the WDF in relation to the underrepresentation of females in specialist posts and the results of the WDF work should help with this.

In terms of current challenges, Superintendent Duncan explained: “I think we must be careful to ensure that the impact of the public-sector spending cuts do not impact disproportionately on females within the service.

“In the challenging times ahead, the Scottish Police Service cannot afford to have barriers to the progression of any of its capable people – whether male or female – and the WDF will continue to do all it can to assist the service to be successful in this regard.”

If you have any questions about the Scottish WDF or the work it is undertaking, please do not hesitate to contact WDF (Scotland) Administrator, Sarah Wood, at sarah.wood@tayside. pnn.police.uk

Police women recognised Six police officers and staff from Lancashire Constabulary were amongst 80 local women from various backgrounds recognised at a special event to mark the 100th International Women’s Day. The certificates were awarded to Neighbourhood Policing Sgt Sue Bushell, Public Protection Officer DC Jane Lawrenson, Missing From Home Co-ordinator Anne-Marie Mazzolai, Coroners’ Officer Lynne Farnworth, Human Resources Manager Ann Marie Bull, and Community Engagement Officer Surraiya Issa.

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Millions of people from around the world mark International Women’s Day every year in respect, and in recognition, of women’s achievements.

The day promotes positive and inspiring changes by raising awareness about problems women face in their everyday lives and the event was an opportunity to celebrate individual and collective achievements of women.

Blackburn with Darwen NHS’s CaSH team (Contraception and Sexual Health) invited the police, amongst other agencies, to host the event and to recogn-

ise achievement of local women in their respective fields.

These women included mothers, housewives, good neighbours, charity workers, school teachers, business women and women who have made the difference on individuals or within the society.

Sergeant Sue Bushell said: “I was very proud to be amongst such inspirational women and pleased to have been recognised at the event. It was very humbling to hear about and celebrate the achievements of other women in Blackburn with Darwen.”

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CONSTABULARY 11

COACHING Feminising the organisation

The feminine touch Excessively-masculine characteristics unbalance leadership. Lecturer and leadership coach Tim Roberts says that business has to be feminised to be productive. Today’s leadership calls for the feminine touch and a woman or indeed a man can provide it – it’s a state of preferences not a genetic mould

O

rganisations are not gender neutral.

We’re tempted to minimise the differences between the sexes and this is noble but misses the point. Together, we can achieve but we must blend male and female energies as each situation demands.

Of course, all of us can display both male and female qualities.

Years ago, when I was a police sergeant, it was against orders to double-crew patrol cars at night with two female police officers.

Maybe this was for strength reasons, which would make sense but, just as likely, it was the legacy of male authority.

Occasionally, I would deliberately break the rules and run one patrol car with two women. I would send this car to some incidents ahead of male colleagues.

I was struck by how the women were consistently able to defuse situations and make arrests faster and with less violence than men.

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These were capable women but something else was happening too. The feminine qualities they used proved incredibly powerful.

Most of us work in conventional organisations that follow the traditional model designed by men and that still reflects masculine themes of dominance, competitiveness, aggression and a desire to struggle alone.

Excessively-masculine characteristics unbalance leadership and reduce the connections required for success. Ironically, the more stressed an organisation becomes the stronger the default to masculine characteristics and, consequently, the more out of step it gets.

Coping with a crisis I often coach leadership teams that are coping with a crisis. One of the big mistakes these teams make is to speed up and grasp at taking more and more actions.

Consequently, the team slips out of balance and the quality of

their thinking together collapses.

This means that actions become less effective and produce undesirable side-effects, further unbalancing the team.

It’s a destructive cycle and it’s also seductive – we’re seduced into creating busyness in an attempt to overcome confusion and fear.

I remember coaching an entrepreneur; we’ll call her Erica.

Erica and her colleagues were challenged with strategic issues and had set aside regular times to work on issues together and progress was excellent.

Suddenly, a disaster struck that threw them into “work like idiots or the company dies” mode. All their quality thinking went to jelly. Their first reaction was to fragment. Some retreated to offices with hermetically sealed doors so no one could distract them – or maybe they were just hiding!

Others went home to work – could they have been hiding too? Erica cancelled their think-

ing time together and all conversations were killed off, while email rates rocketed. This points to fear and desperation and to people who don’t really want to communicate because they are suffering.

These amazing people already worked more hours than was healthy and their typically “male” response (even though most were women) was to increase the quantity of their work.

They were oblivious to the fact that the quality of their work was dropping and creating a bigger risk than the catastrophe they were struggling with.

Rabbits in headlights Two weeks later, Erica rang me and said: “Can you come here and take my BlackBerry away from me! We’re moving so fast we’ve got stuck!” When I walked into the boardroom Erica’s team reminded me of rabbits in headlights. They looked ten years older, tired and irritable, but still dedicated.

If this is where you are right now, consider doing the following immediately. Create some space together – both physical and emotional. Take an emotional check-in – how is everyone, who is suffering and who still has capacity? What needs to happen to reduce suffering and raise resilience?

Take steps to deliberately rebalance the feminine qualities of compassion, connection and care in your team; because only when your team is centred, can it be of best service.

As we did this, the fear and tension in Erica’s team evaporated and glimpses of clarity returned. We deliberately created a thinking oasis and they set regular times to connect, refresh and have those tough conversations.

We talked through a new open-door policy – not just opening physical doors but opening the mental and emotional doors too.

Many of the behaviours associated with women have been systematically devalued, especially in stressed teams.

This is beginning to change – dialoguing, collaboration and resolving conflicts are examples of the organisation being feminised. But reward and recognition is still heaped upon the male default setting.

In your work, when was the last time that listening was valued as much as action? When was team membership valued as much as leadership? When was the last time that pausing to

nurture ideas until they are ready was as highly regarded as full steam ahead?

Purposelessness A friend of mine, Petra, was given a complicated task by her manager. Petra abruptly walked out of the manager’s office and then out of the police station. Petra walked into town.

The manager became suspicious by this and about an hour later also went into town, where the manager saw Petra gazing into a shop window. The manager watched for a long time as Petra strolled along the high street looking in through shop and café windows.

Later that afternoon when Petra had returned the manager took her to one side and angrily demanded an explanation as to why he had seen her shopping when she was supposed to be working.

Petra said: “You didn’t see me shopping. You saw me thinking!”

The manager was speechless.

Petra had been so worried by the additional task on top of her already overfull workload that she decided she needed to step away from busyness to allow a nurturing space for new perspectives to emerge.

The way to do this is to engage in an activity with purposelessness and allow the non-conscious mind to develop insights.

As it turned out, Petra had been able to step away from the logical rational mind, which can’t deal with complex problems effectively. She had activated deeper ways of knowing and waited patiently until they offered her a higher-order view of how to

March / April 2011

proceed, arguably, saving much time and stress.

The male version of this would have been to sit there and try to “nut it out!”

The feminine touch The female archetype is tender, nurturing and wise, with the capacity to be present as events unfold without leaping to attack or defence, she discusses patiently and challenges with empathy.

In short, the feminine touch is what much of today’s leadership research is calling for; and a woman or a man can practise it.

It is a state of preferences, not a genetic mould. We need the right combination of female and male energies.

Look at your own workplace.

Do you buy into the metaphor that business is war? If so, you will be accepting male themes.

But guess what? In a global, networked, complex and technologically savvy world, success is built on forging relationships with partners, not declaring war on competitors, whether these are different organisations or competing departments.

The masculine organisation is dead. We are witnessing an age in which business will have to be feminised to be productive.

We now have a huge opportunity to embed this into strategic practices.

The Taoist symbol of Yin and Yang is a beautiful example of interconnection, where the light depends on the shade – just as the masculine depends on the feminine – if only we could remember this.

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Panic rooms for abuse victims

CONFERENCE

Panic rooms provide sanctuary West Midlands Police held a national conference to promote the use of sanctuary rooms – similar to the American-style panic rooms – to provide an escape for abuse victims fearing an attack by their partner

D

elegates and speakers from police forces across the country attended the Domestic Abuse Conference on Panic Rooms, which was held to share best practice nationally as the West Midlands has been identified as implementing particularly effective strategies and schemes for supporting victims of serious domestic abuse.

The Sanctuary Scheme is a complete support package for victims and can include, for high-risk cases, the provision of a sanctuary room in their own home.

The sanctuary rooms are similar to American-style “panic rooms” and provide an escape for victims who fear an attack by their partners. They can be fitted with steel-reinforced walls, panic alarms and other measures, including easily lockable doors to prevent access from the outside.

The sanctuary room project, conceived and developed by Birmingham City Council Housing Department in partnership with West Midlands Police crime-prevention officers, won a prestigious Secured by Design Innovation Award for its holistic approach to supporting victims of domestic abuse.

Support included working alongside Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid to provide specialist support; West Midlands Police Public Protection to safeguard women and investigate and manage offenders; crimeprevention officers providing support in fortifying homes against intrusion and local housing authorities assisting with housing needs when necessary.

The scheme was designed to support victims who were at risk of losing their homes due to serious abuse. For those who found it impractical or difficult to leave, the scheme allowed them to stay in their homes as they had a room that was safe and secure.

Crime-prevention design advisor, Sergeant Andy Gregory, said: “These sanctuary rooms are

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made by fortifying walls, improving the integrity of windows and doors and fitting panic alarms if necessary. But it’s not just about the one room – we ensure the whole house is secure and virtually impenetrable.

“The fantastic thing about the scheme is that we work alongside Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid, colleagues in housing and local authorities across the region to achieve a consistent and effective level of support for our victims.”

The conference received significant media coverage, including ITV Central who featured an interview from a victim of domestic abuse whose life had been significantly improved by the support she received from the scheme.

One member of the public, who had been following updates on Twitter and was a previous victim of domestic abuse, praised the work the force was doing in supporting victims.

Terry Webb, a retired police officer who now works as a development officer specialising in crime design for Birmingham City Council, said: “We are proud to have been recognised as leading nationally in our strategy for supporting victims of domestic abuse.

“The conference was a productive discussion around the improvement of support to victims and the promotion of a model that we feel works really well.

“Sanctuary rooms mean victims can stay in their homes with the reassurance that if a violent partner was to try and break in, they have a safe secure place from which to contact the police.”

Funded by the WMP Secured

by Design Innovation Award and the International Police Association, the conference featured a number of exhibition stands and provided forces with the opportunity to speak with security firms specialising in crime prevention and security equipment.

Pictured left to right are: PC Gareth Pemberton (WMP); Bob Meath (Theam Security); Sgt

Andy Gregory (WMP); Rod Law (Wiltshire Constabulary); Holly Taylor (Birmingham & Solihull Women’s Aid), Sgt Phil Butcher (WMP); Terry Webb; Dawn Goodenough (Sanctuary Scheme); and Inspector Mark Stokes (Secured

by Design).

March / April 2011

CONSTABULARY 13

POSTBAG Readers’ letters

Readers let off steam Readers’ letters in this issue include the ongoing battle with AOL, a Google Maps error that could lead to unwitting drivers committing an offence and a chief who wants to hear about certain cases to help get a law reviewed Map error could cause offence to be committed With regard to the Google Maps move town article in February’s issue of Constabulary, I can provide you with a further example of mapping inaccuracy that has the potential for unwitting drivers to commit an offence.

If you type “A8000” into Google Maps you will see a stretch of road that runs between the M9 motorway and the A90 leading to/from the Forth Road Bridge. The part of the road that comes from the M9 always was, and is, motorway but terminated where the road now crosses above the previous A8000, now named the B800.

About two years ago, a new section of motorway was built from that intersection to the A90. The A8000 actually no longer exists. The fact that TeleAtlas maps changed a motorway to show this as an A road could lead to provisionallicence holders finding them-

selves on a section of motorway with no way of getting off!

Bing maps are on the ball and show this as the M9 but, bizarrely, colour it in green instead of blue.

I am not aware of any roadtraffic infringements as this section of road is outside my beat area, however, the potential is there. I tried informing TeleAtlas through their fault-reporting mechanism when the road was under construction which, clearly, was ignored.

ER, Lothian and Borders PC

Rome police officer, Nicola Zichella, the foreign affairs correspondent for the Italian police magazine Atlasorbis, visited London recently and met up with Constabulary’s editor-inchief, Christopher Locke.

Atlasorbis is now available online at www.atlasorbis.com and includes some articles written in English. The magazine and online version are published by Editor-in-Chief Fabrizio Locurcio, and his team that includes Gianluca Guerrisi, Massimo D’Anastasio, Mirco

AOL solution?

There seems to be a common link with internet connections with BT and AOL. This being the telephone line that leads to the home and AOL requires a BT line.

I too suffered the same problems with AOL and over two years ago decided to switch to Virgin (other providers available) and, as they use fibre optics, I have never had a problem since.

K I, Cleveland

Death following abuse In September 2009 the ACPO Violence and Public Protection Portfolio undertook a review at the request of the Home Office into perpetrators of violence against women and girls.

UK statistics indicate that in 2000, 34% of female suicide victims had experienced domestic violence (Walby, 2004). Other research (Stark and Flitcraft 1995) implies that: • Battered women were more likely to attempt suicide than non-battered women • Battering in conjunction with ethnicity, marital status (being recently married and young) and reproductive health (being preg-

nant or having experienced one or more miscarriages) increased the risk of attempted suicide • Over one-third of the sample identified had experienced an abuse-related injury on the same day as their suicide attempt, and that 65% were assaulted within six months of their attempt.

The case of R v Dhaliwal (2006) EWCA Crim 1139 is notable but the prosecution failed on the basis of proving the distinction between psychological and psychiatric harm.

The ACPO Review considered whether it should be necessary to have to prove an assault (through psychiatric injury) in order to bring and secure a conviction for manslaughter.

Whilst research is limited in this area, I am aware of the anecdote that suggests there are people who become so desperate at their plight through abuse that they take their life to escape it. There is some evidence that such cases are not isolated incidents.

I wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to seek

his views on the adequacy of the law. The DPP considered that the present manslaughter law is adequate, and asked his prosecutors to identify a suitable case upon which to test his view of current law and the concern we have raised.

I also wrote to all heads of CID and coroners asking them to raise with me cases of concern for further consideration.

I would like to hear from any police officer or member of staff who has dealt with any incident where a person appears to have taken their own life and may have been subject to domestic abuse, which could have been a factor in their demise.

My review recommended that

a new “liability for suicide” law be considered after the adequacy of current law has been tested further.

I now wish to develop our review and identify suitable cases that may support the need for a review of the law.

Please contact my staff officer at Lian.Dunwell-Smith@ wiltshire.pnn.police.uk if you have any questions or suitable cases to raise with us.

Chief Constable Brian Moore of Wiltshire, the National ACPO Violence & Public Protection Portfolio holder.

Infussi and other volunteers.

Nicola Zichella is also a member of the Italian branch of the International Police Association of Rome and has liaised with Constabulary’s Christopher Locke for many years, gathering articles for Atlasorbis about policing in the UK. During his visit to the UK, Nicola had the chance to meet with Christopher and said: “Our partner Christopher Locke is our UK correspondent of Atlasorbis, who sends us many interesting articles and news stories of interest

to police agencies in Italy and other parts of Europe that read Atlasorbis.”

Atlasorbis is a non-profitmaking magazine and was created by a group of Italian police officers with expertise in the area of geopolitics and computer science.

Correspondent Francesco Marinuzzi (www.marinuzzi.it) is in the process of publishing a book, in English, on cyberstalking (www.cyberstalking. it), which explains how users can defend themselves from technological harassment on

their mobile phones, smart phones and social networks.

Atlasorbis magazine recently interviewed the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, which illustrates the respect the title has earned.

The magazine is the first independent police magazine in Europe and now has a correspondent from the Russian Police, Colonel Vladimir Kislukhin of the International Police Association in Kirov, which shows the co-operation between police forces throughout the world.

Colonel Vladimir Kislukhin, a professor at the Legal Academy in Kirov, has given an insight to the world of policing in Russia. He writes for several law-enforcement magazines in Russia, including Militia magazine, the official magazine of the Interior Ministry of Russian Federation, and Police & Brotherhood magazine.

Constabulary magazine is happy to be associated with Atlasorbis and pleased to have been able to support it with editorial over the years.

For more information visit www. atlasorbis.com

Editor We chased AOL about these problems but all we have had is an email from their technical department in the USA, who said they would speak to us but we have not been able to tie them down to a day and time for a telephone call. We will pursue AOL and let you know if we get an answer.

Please send your letters and gripes to editor@constabulary. org.uk

Italian police magazine visits UK

Prayer for Japan Go to www.youtube.com/watch ?v=8z6PtWSEJwk&feature=au tofb to hear Atlasorbis member associate, Italian singer Linda Diaferio, featuring Amber Dirks, singing A Prayer for Japan (in English) and see scenes of the earthquake.

The video is supported by the American Red Cross Malibu organization (Malibu Sea Stars www. malibuseastars.com) which the ARGOS association supports.

Great ideas from iPod prize draw Many thanks to all those readers who entered our special prize draw in the last issue of Constabulary. Your comments have all been noted and we hope that, as a result, future issues of the magazine will give you even more of what you want to read.

Congratulations to our two iPod winners, Dale Askew and Terry Bissessar, who were the first names drawn “out of the hat” on 1 March following our prize draw published in the last issue; green and blue iPods have been sent to them.

Dale is a contact-centre supervisor with Surrey Police, while Terry is an inspector with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.

14 CONSTABULARY

The prize draw was run to find out what people thought of Constabulary – their likes, dislikes and general comments about content and design. Results from the survey conducted have produced some interesting ideas, which we will be developing in future issues.

Generally, respondents enjoy reading the magazine and gave it a high rating both visually and editorially. It was encouraging to note that a number of police officers take the magazine home for their spouses and family to read and enjoy.

We are hoping to run similar prize draws in future issues. In the meantime, thank you to all those who participated – watch this space!

March / April 2011

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Drink and drug-driving & Road Safety Week

None for the road

BRAKE

Brake wants drink-drive limit lowered, random breath-testing and specific offence for drug-driving; plus Road Safety Week theme is Too Young To Die

T

he Government has announced that it will not lower the drink-drive limit or introduce random breathtesting, despite recommendations from Parliament’s Transport Select Committee and an independent review

by Sir Peter North.

The Government has stated that it will consider making it a specific offence to drive on drugs, removing the need to prove impairment, and that it will introduce roadside drugs-testing devices as soon as possible.

Campaigns Director Julie Townsend of Brake, the roadsafety charity, said: “These moves by government to address the scourge of drug-driving are incredibly important in tackling casualties and making our roads safer for everyone.

“We hope the Government will act quickly to implement a specific offence on drug-driving, and roadside testing, both of which are desperately needed.

“It’s bitterly disappointing that

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the Government has chosen to ignore evidence showing that lowering our drink-drive limit and implementing random breathtesting would be highly effective in cutting these tragic, costly and preventable casualties.”

“Quite simply, we need a zerotolerance approach to drinkdriving – including a lower limit, and far more breath-testing – if we are to stamp out this deadly menace once and for all.”

Brake advocates a drink-drive limit of 20mg per 100ml blood (currently 80mg/100ml blood) – a zero-tolerance approach that would send out a clear message that it’s none for the road.

Brake is highlighting that there is widespread support for this lower limit, as well as international evidence that it would be a positive step in tackling drinkdrive deaths and injuries.

Road Safety Week Police forces are being encouraged to get involved in Road Safety Week 2011 (21-27 November) to help generate

a wave of publicity across the UK to stop the needless loss of young lives on our roads. This year’s theme is Too Young To Die, (brake.org.uk/2young2die).

Road crashes are more likely to kill young people than any other cause of death. In 2009, 11 young people were killed and 125 more were seriously injured on roads every week in Great Britain.

Brake organises the event annually with the support of agencies, including the Police Federation and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The charity is calling on forces to support the campaign in 2011 by running education and enforcement initiatives, generating important media coverage for the Road Safety Week message.

The theme in 2011 links to Brake’s 2Young2Die campaign, specifically aimed at teenagers and young drivers, which helps them to understand the dangers of driving, or being a passenger with a young driver, through

workshops and competitions.

Brake research shows young drivers are more likely to speed, use their phone while driving, drink or drug-drive and not belt up than older drivers.

Forces can get involved by running activities around the 2011 theme, for example, running education or enforcement campaigns targeting young drivers in their community, or on another road-safety issue of their choice.

Police officers can also attend Brake’s 2young2die one-day training course on delivering workshops in schools and colleges. Forces can also support the campaign by holding fundraisers to help Brake’s acclaimed support work for road-crash victims.

More ideas are available at roadsafetyweek.org.uk by clicking on the “road safety professionals” button.

Julie Townsend said: “Police forces deal with the daily carnage of road crashes so are ideally placed to get involved in

Road Safety Week and help get the week’s message across in their communities.

“Forces carry out valuable road-safety campaigns year round, and there is particular value in carrying out initiatives in Road Safety Week, when media interest is heightened.”

Neil Fillingham, force traffic management co-ordinator at Humberside Police and a supporter of the event, said: “Road Safety Week offers a fantastic opportunity for us to work with the public and remind them of key road-safety issues through a variety of activities and events.

“I would encourage all police forces and partners to get involved in 2011, and to work together with Brake to reduce the devastation of death and injury on our roads.”

The 9th Road Safety Forum International Congress in June, also run by Brake, will look at the topic of youth, gender and road risk, and explore why young drivers and male drivers are involved in such a high proportion of road deaths and injuries. For more details go to roadsafetyforum.org/events.

March / April 2011

CONSTABULARY 15

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16 CONSTABULARY

February 2011

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