New code of practice heralds new era, say police
01 January 1991
New code of practice heralds new era, say police
artdoc May=1991
The national newspapers have given extensive coverage to a new code of
practice adopted by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
Headlines like `New laws to usher in age of the polite force' (Standard
23.10.90), `The Galahad code pledges polite force' (Express 24.10.90)
and `Police force proceed in friendly direction' (Today 24.10.90)
accompany accounts of the new code. It is also claimed that ACPO's
strategic policy review will change the whole direction of British
policing.
The code was adopted following a conference at Bramshill police
college which was supported by all the county forces in England and
Wales and the Commission for Racial Equality. According to ACPO's
president, the Conference was designed to `commit the whole service to a
corporate sense of purpose and direction, without inhibiting individual
forces initiatives'. A review of policing had been undertaken following
the disturbing results of the 1989 National Crime Survey, which showed a
17% decline in public satisfaction with the police.
Central to the review is a philosophy of policing which attempts to
place new emphasis on the police as a service rather than a force and to
shift the priority from law enforcement towards a concept of
`reassurance policing'.
The code of practice, a statement of common purposes and values,
instructs officers to be /more compassionate, unprejudiced,
professional, calm and restrained'. And ACPO's strategic policy review
, it is claimed, gives chief constables a standard framework for
monitoring the quality of work. Chief constables and detective
constables will set `performance indicators' for officers whilst
divisional commanders would analyse local needs and priorities for
action. `First line supervisors' in stations will guarantee the
professional behaviour of beat officers and will be held responsible if
there is a failure to meet `the highest possible standards of fairness,
courtesy and assistance'. Sub-divisional supervisors will have to
produce quarterly reports on complaints about assaults, incivility,
obscenity and poor performance. Forces are instructed to keep victims
of crime, particularly of domestic violence and racial harassment,
informed on how cases are progressing and what action has been taken by
the courts and to seek the views of residents and businessmen in
determining local needs and customer satisfaction through local
questionnaires, analysis of complaints and consultation with community
groups. The idea is that the survey, which could be carried out every
three months, would provide an alternative to crime figures as a measure
of police performance.
The chairman of the group of officers who have devised the
initiatives, Michael Hirst, chief constables of Leicestershire, says
that the police are at a crossroads, as clearly signposted as the one
reached in 1990 after the Toxteth riots in Liverpool. Unless the police
changed their approach now, they would slip into a more confrontational
style of policing. And Michael Day, chairman of the Commission for
Racial Equality, said that the report was the most positive statement by
the police in ten years: `The raw edge of racism lies between the police
and young black people in our cities. If that is sensitively and
imaginatively managed, the efforts in so many other places stand a real
chance of success'. (Independent 22 and 24.10.90, Times 22 and 24.10.90;
Standard 23.10.90, Today 24.10.90, Daily Express 24.10.90, Guardian
24.10.90)
IRR Police-Media Bulletin, no 65. Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke
Street, London WC1X 9HS
n