Federation says return to policing targets would be “Corrosive”

30 January 2020

THE return of police targets would be “corrosive” and not in the best interests of the community, according to Essex Police Federation.

Senior police chiefs have claimed the Government is considering a move back to targets, in order to see a return on investment for the 20,000 police officers they have pledged to recruit.

Chairman of Essex Police Federation Steve Taylor said: “I think this would be a despicable excuse to reintroduce the corrosive use of targets in policing. Let’s not forget it was austerity that led to this investment being withdrawn. It wasn’t poor police performance. No one was suggesting we weren’t doing things properly. “

Steve added that when the Prime Minister was Mayor of London he introduced policing targets, so “that seems to be the way they operate”.

He also pointed out that the increased number of police officers only took the country back to where it was a decade ago.

He said: “There were solid reasons why we moved away from a target-led culture. Those reasons don’t just disappear because [the Government] want to give us more money. Where you’ve got targets, where you’ve got different forms of measurement, it leads itself to inappropriate, inconsistent recording.

“It leads itself to smoke and mirrors. It’s less than transparent and it’s less than upfront. It’s not how our communities are best served.”