It’s always nice to get the public backing of the Queen of the (Home Office) Manor, Jacqui Smith, and today she publicly threw her support behind two chief constables who have demanded that all victims of crime should be visited by the police no matter how minor the offence.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Home Sec praised Essex Chief, Roger Baker, (who is promising to send an officer to attend every crime ) and Leicestershire’s Matt Baggott (who recently called for an officer to attend all crimes, after revealing four in 10 crime victims are currently not visited).

She stopped short of suggesting that every Chief should adopt the policy, but did say that “these are senior police officers who are making a difference in the areas where they are and who I would have a lot of confidence in”

Confidence really is the key policing issue du jour, yet colleagues still don’t appear to have in place, not only creative and targeted marketing and communications strategies to address the implications of the new performance regime (National Indicator 21 and PSA 23 in particular), but deployment strategies designed to address local confidence issues. I still see lots of ‘busyness’ and a mechanistic focus on process. I don’t yet see too many colleagues grasping the opportunities that this new agenda provides, to deliver a different service.

Related posts:

1. Home Office funds pie and ears
2. Tricky questions to ask: No.1
3. Full steam ahead on the youth agenda
4. Its the way ya tell ‘em
5. EPolicing – LAPD style