Response policing: ‘The pressures are intense’
28 April 2026
Jess takes part in the panel session.
The pressures on response officers were discussed at the National Response Policing Conference in Manchester on Thursday (23 April).
Among those taking part in the event, which was jointly organised by the Police Federation and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), was Jess Davies, who up until becoming West Midlands Police Federation chair in May last year, worked on response.
“This was a great opportunity for me to bring the issues facing response officers to the fore,” says Jess, “It seems to me that they are just pulled from pillar to post, with pressure to get in and out of a job as quickly as possible because of the demands that are placed on them.
Quality
“There appears to be no thought to the fact they actually need to deal with each job once they arrive at it. No consideration is given to delivering a quality service and dealing with incidents thoroughly.
“I am a firm believer that response officers are gifted with ‘professional curiosity’. For example, once in someone’s home, they are perfectly placed to observe and listen for things that don’t sit right. This could be domestic violence, coercive and controlling relationships, child neglect or child cruelty. The pressures are intense, and they are required to move quickly from one incident to the next, this means there is less opportunity to spend the time needed to notice those more subtle warning signs.
“In our own force, as well as responding to incidents, response officers now carry a workload – such as, investigations of lower end crime including shoplifting, criminal damage, low level assaults and public order offences which they are expected to do in between responding to incidents or during ‘down time’ which is actually non-existent. Sergeants will try to allocate officers’ workload days, but this is all dependent on staffing levels, abstractions, sickness and so on.
“In addition to this, they will take on prisoner hand-overs. So, if on earlies they arrest a shoplifter, this will be handed over to those on lates to interview and charge and so on – that will mean that a response crew is written off. Then, if another prisoner needs to be taken to hospital or is already on a hospital or suicide watch, that’s another crew written off to do that.
“Scene watches would be the same. You can frequently have a full shift of staff wiped out with a couple of watches of hand-overs. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) times will still need to be met though for incoming incidents and the existing workload has to be completed in a timely manner – the competing demands quickly become impossible. You’ve also got football matches and other public order events to provide trained officers to.
Solutions
“Certainly, for the officers, it also becomes difficult at times for them to take refreshment breaks and their annual leave due to minimum staffing levels and other abstractions.”
West Midlands Police Federation is working with the Force at a senior level to help address the challenges faced by officers on response, with Jess stressing that the Federation was keen to not just highlight the problems but also be part of finding the solutions.
Jess also highlighted the fact that the funding formula worked against West Midlands Police with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) covering a similarly sized population and yet receiving around 10 per cent more in its budget. As a result, GMP, like many other forces, has more officers than it did in 2010 (pre-austerity) and 500 more than West Midlands Police which has around 400 fewer than in 2010.
“This means that as a large metropolitan force we are having to try to do more with less. There are only a finite number of officers available, and the strain is being felt across the whole force. However, response is the department that the public normally see first in their hour of need,” Jess explained.
Jess took part in an afternoon panel session, hosted by broadcaster Ian Collins. ACC Matt Boyle, the NPCC lead for response policing, was also on the panel. Earlier in the day, she took part in a shorter session in which response officers talked first-hand about their experiences.
The one-day conference brought together senior leaders, frontline officers, policymakers and key stakeholders to focus on the future of response policing.
“Conference gave me the chance to discuss all these issues and raise awareness of the Federation’s Copped Enough campaign when responding to questions from delegates,” said Jess.
Alarming
“It put the spotlight on response policing and demonstrated the need for issues to be addressed. Ultimately, the public deserve to be given a good service and it is alarming that response officers are trapped in a broken system that does not allow them to deliver the service their communities rightly deserve.”
Other speakers at the event included Steve Phillip, the founder of the Jordan Legacy. Steve set up the charity following the death of his son, Jordan, at the age of 34. The charity raises awareness about suicide and the practical actions schools, workplaces and communities can take to prevent one of the most preventable deaths in the UK and globally.
Jess said: “Steve’s input was really moving. It was inspiring to hear about how he strives to bring something positive out of the tragic loss of his son. I would urge anyone who gets the opportunity to hear him speak to do so.”
