College Of Policing Must Engage With Officers

11 September 2020

The College of Policing needs to engage better with officers, according to Essex Police Federation.

The College has undergone a rebrand and relaunch, including new website which it says will make its resources more accessible and easier to use.

The College has also vowed to be ‘more open’ to feedback and comments and in how it uses that feedback to set out its work and policies.

At the moment, most rank-and-file officers don’t understand the College’s role or how it affects them, Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said.

She explained: “Your everyday bobby on the beat doesn’t really know about or care much about the College of Policing.

“The College is something that’s more thrown up as a reason why we have to do something rather than as a supportive institution.

“It’s more, ‘why are we doing things this way?… well, COP says we do.’ Or officers might say there is a better way of doing things, but COP says to do it another way.”

However, Laura did acknowledge it is a two-way street, and more needs to be done by officers and the College to get both sides working in harmony.

She said: “It’s difficult because unless officers engage in it and unless we’re heard, then we can’t really complain if the College of Policing doesn’t change.

“So we have to take some responsibility for that. Now they are saying that they are listening to the feedback that’s been given.

“Hopefully they are, in which case we may see some positive changes coming.”

Change is needed because the College still has an important role to play in policing, Laura added.

“They influence what forces bring in,” she said. “It’s very rare for a force to step outside of the College of Policing guidance, but the College of Policing will always say, ‘we only give guidance, and it’s down to the forces whether or not they implement it’.

“It’s a really brave move for forces to step outside the guidance because then as soon as something was to fail or go wrong the College of Policing would be obviously with hindsight say, ‘we told you so. You went your own way, and that’s why it went wrong’.

“But things are still going wrong under the College of Policing guidance.”