HMICFRS Report: Don’t criticise hard working officers, criticise those who have caused austerity

11 March 2020

Police officers are professionals who are ‘doing their best with the tools they have’, says Essex Police Federation.

Federation Chairman Steve Taylor says officers are having to work harder every day to deliver the best service they can for their communities after the ravages of austerity.

Steve was reacting to a recent HMICFRS report into policing, which suggested that the public had given up reporting some crimes because they know the service just doesn’t have the resources to investigate them.

The report also concluded that faith in the criminal justice system was taking a battering with the chances of some suspects being tried in the courts seen as being ‘slim’.

The PFEW says officers are in a ‘soul-destroying position’ and are as frustrated as the public are at not being able to offer the service they once could.

“Organisationally we’ve been stripped as a result of austerity,” Steve said.

“We’re starting to see a return, and we’re starting to see a growth in terms of finance, which is leading to better numbers, and we’ve seen the exploration of better working practices and techniques.

“But we’re in a lean place. If you look at a lean animal, you might be forgiven for thinking it seems a bit unhealthy, depending on which side of that fence you look, which view you take.

“I wouldn’t want to paint every officer as being down in the dumps and miserable because my experience locally on the ground is it’s not always the case. We have difficulties, but we’re professionals, we’re trying our best with the tools available,” he said.

“Day to day officers are working harder. They’re trying their best to deliver locally for their communities.

“If you want to bring on the criticism then it must be towards those that have put us in this position, not those that are trying to make the best of it.”

Some of the issues can come down to public perception, and the new types of crime officers are expected to deal with Steve added, and a lack of visibility of officers on the street doesn’t mean crime isn’t being tackled.

“Some of the new forms of crime and the new methods of investigating them mean, arguably, we don’t need to come out and see people,” he said.

“Take some of the desk-based stuff, some of the fraud, some of the online stuff. You don’t need a police car driving past your house to make you feel safe about online crime or to actively investigate it.

“There’s a whole debate feeding into the royal commission on policing argument. There’s a whole debate to be had here around the police service we are and the service we deliver and what that looks like on the ground.

“I could walk past your house in my cape and my custodian helmet, and you’ll feel physically safe, but I’m not doing a jot to keep you safe online or to keep your kids safe on social media,” Steve added.

“There is a myriad of other crime and offences that the police rightfully have to be visible and involved in, but that visibility isn’t always physical.”