Home Secretary Theresa May gave a speech to the ACPO Conference today in which she set out the direction of policing under this Government. The full text of the speech can be read here.  However, the main points are as follows:

Big cuts in the Home Office budget are anticipated in the forthcoming Spending Review (the Institute for Fiscal Studies was talking about the 25%-33% range last week) however, the Government will honour the existing pay deal for police officers negotiated with the previous administration, and they will stand by the deal for ...

Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Nick Herbert gave a speech today (23 June) at Policy Exchange in which he set out the seven principles which will run through their approach to reform of the criminal justice system.

Over the next few months, they will be setting out proposals for fundamental criminal justice reform and will introduce a Police Reform and Social Responsibility bill in this first session of Parliament.  Later this year, they will set out proposals to reform sentencing and the way that offenders are managed.

I have edited the speech to draw ...

The Chinese have an expression ‘may you live in interesting times’. Well, it certainly is interesting times in policing right now.

The battleground has been well and truly staked staked out and the combatants are moving around and posturing ahead of the inevitable battle. Skirmishes are taking place (via various media outlets) and the loyal and opinionated supporters are detailing the obvious and certain merits of their particular perspective.

It all brings to mind attacking forces circling and harassing the redoubtable ‘square’ of infantry. Much sound and movement, but with little progress. Meanwhile the citizenry continues to ...

At the risk of driving people crazy, I want to talk about social media and in particular: location based services.

STOP. Don’t delete this just yet. It really does relate to policing.

Location based services are the holy grail of social media (Remember – social media extends waaay beyond Twitter and facebook). The reason: if you know where people are and what they are doing, you can sell them things and target and influence their behaviour.

Consequently a lot of attention is being focused on location based services right now, with companies rushing to get you to ‘enable’ ...

A social media question for our times.

With the advent of such things as tweeting and mobile blogging, does the Chatham House Rule still hold good?

As all regular course attendees will know, the Chatham House Rule is often highlighted and agreed at the start of a course, workshop or discussion. Although quite often referred to as the ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ rule, it actually has a more distinguished background.

The Chatham House Rule is a rule that governs the confidentiality of the source of information received at a meeting. (source wikipedia)

Since its refinement in ...

Sometimes it’s the juxtaposition of things or events that highlight the obvious. Luxury highlights poverty, ostentation simplicity, garrulousness brevity.

Today is the day that our political leaders engage in (what passes for in our society ) the first televised debate between party leaders on British television. As I drove along near my house today I was listening to the lunchtime news on Radio 4. The airwaves were full of advice for the party leaders ahead of the debate. Pundits opining about the need for the leaders to use their voices well, talk deeply, breathe freely, slow ...

There is a lot of interest in the CBI report on policing released this morning ( I particularly enjoyed the Police Federation sideswipe at the CBI. Do Turkey’s ever vote for Christmas?). To save you the trouble of going to find the details I have reproduced the CBI Press Release below.

I have placed the full report on the Agency Reports page. Enjoy..

The CBI is calling for more police forces to share back office functions, including human resources and IT, and for greater private-sector involvement in providing support services, such as running custody suites. Since these ...

Think you understand the financial and resource pressures that your partners in the local authority are facing?

A report published yesterday provides an interesting insight into some of the key issues and challenges. The Audit Commission report ‘Surviving the Crunch’ flags the need for councils to plan for the new economic challenges sooner rather than later. The report also makes clear that some places and some people will suffer more than others as, in many parts of the country, councils, schools, police, fire and NHS are among the largest employers, and, in cutting ...

I have posted three new documents on the Open Eye Communications ‘Agency Reports’ pages. Guidance to CSP’s on crime and disorder on public transport, the CONTEST Annual Report and the Home Affairs Select Committee Report on the Government’s approach to crime prevention.

I ask pretty much every group of delegates on our workshops “How many of you are on Twitter?” the normal response is one or two people. I then ask “How many of you are on facebook?”. Normally, about a third of the room says yes, they’re on facebook and are active users.

So, accepting the wisdom of crowds, we have now created an Open Eye Communications ‘fan page’ on facebook where we can interact with you on the platform that you like and use. Please check us out and send us a comment ...