Federation warns against target-driven culture

23 April 2021

The Government must reconsider its plans to introduce league tables which would result in a return to a damaging, target-driven culture, according to the national chair of the Police Federation.

John Apter was speaking out as it was confirmed that the Home Secretary Priti Patel is drawing up plans to rank police forces on their success in cutting serious crime.

Rob Grunner, secretary of Humberside Police Federation, has backed the national chair’s stance after police chiefs were told they will be measured on six crime types including homicide, serious violence and cyber-crime.

“The Home Office has said it will compare forces’ performance against national benchmarks to put a ‘relentless focus on cutting crime’ but police officers know that having targets for some areas of their work will not help them provide an efficient and effective policing service for the public they serve,” says Rob.

“All that will happen is that the focus will be put on these elements of our work and that will just mean that other areas will slide down the list of priorities.”

John said scrutiny and accountability are already a large part of policing.

“Re-introducing targets in policing would be a damaging and retrograde step. In previous years when they have been used, we have seen forces focus on targets to the exclusion of other issues. This is not good for the public and certainly no good for the victims of crime,” he explained.

“These league tables would also restrict the ability of forces to focus on local issues, because chief officers would be chasing targets which were judged on criteria set in Whitehall. If, despite these warnings, this is pursued it will fail, and it will be damaging.”

Targets were introduced by the previous Government in 2007 but the Federation successfully campaigned for them to be scrapped.