It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the politics of UK policing.

ACPO President Sir Hugh Orde led from the front on the issue of accountability, claiming that ‘Police chiefs in England and Wales may quit if a Conservative government forced directly elected commissioners on them‘. Mmm, methinks that may be quite a short queue.

The Government continues to try and ‘out tough’ the conservatives on the only game in town for the forseeable (election) future (anti social behaviour in all its guises). Their latest ploy ? The announcement of a £10m package, which will target 130 local councils, to:

fund local work to tackle ASB, such as environmental clean up campaigns etc 

provide extra training for frontline staff such as ASB co-ordinators, police and neighbourhood wardens

all good so far, but interestingly to also:

let local residents know their rights and how to report anti-social behaviour

provide training to help residents and community champions challenge police and councils and shape the approach to tackling anti-social behaviour

In other words, to continue the increase in local accountability and the prioritisation of local issues by local people.

In case you were in any doubt about the political determination to drive the service toward being more accountable and responsive, the Government spent £1.9M on a national advertising campaign reinforcing the Policing Pledge to the great british public. See the making of the video here

Then, yesterday, Sir Denis O’Connor, Chief HMI published ‘Adapting to Protest’ a review of public order policing which, amongst other things, drew the conclusion that ‘the principle of policing by public consent had been severely undermined, most visibly by “aggressive and unfair” tactics at protests such as the G20 demonstrations’ and that ‘British police risk losing the battle for the public’s consent if they win public order through tactics that appear to be unfair, aggressive or inconsistent,"

Oh, it’s all cheery stuff all right.

Related posts:

1. Perceptions of policing
2. Government ‘assembles’ community activists
3. It ain’t done till it’s communicated
4. The future’s bright, the future’s er………this way.
5. A new phrase for you to learn: Participatory Budgeting