BATTERED AND BLUE?

No one at work should run the risk of being assaulted - yet judging by the amount of working days lost due to assault related injury our Police officers run that risk pretty regularly. Research by BBC Wales has revealed that 1,735 working days were lost over three years at three of the four Welsh Police forces as a result of assaults on officers, suggest that our police officers are well and truly in the firing line. 

The BBC figures show that as result of assaults on Police some  494 days were lost in Dyfed-Powys over three years, 568 days in Gwent and 673 days in the South Wales force. Along with the temporary loss of officers who were unavailable for duty there was a knock-on financial cost, which the BBC has estimated to be around £189,800.

This is not good news, as our Welsh Police forces are also under continuing pressure to reduce costs, as part of Con Dem Westminster government's public spending review (which began in 2010) which include an intention to reduce or cut central police funding by 20% by 2015. What this means more locally is that collectively the Welsh Police forces will have to make total savings of £ 96 million – which will mean a loss of jobs (amongst both Police officers and support staff) and a reduction in the service offered to the public.  

At least as far as the law is concerned attacking or assaulting a police officer is still seen as an aggravated offence in the eyes of the law, and could carry a custodial sentence of up to six months. Speaking as an ex journalist, who in a previous life spent more than enough time covering Pontypool and Cwmbran magistrates court in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, that was not the case then, and I suspect that it is mostly certainly not the case now.

Now I am not and have never been one of the hang them and flog them brigade (I leave that sort of posturing to lightweight Tories), I and no doubt many people consider it unacceptable when public servants (whether Police Officers, Ambulance service staff and Doctors and Nurses in casualty) are attacked or assaulted while doing their job. What’s needed is a balance be achieved between deterrence and the consequences of an assault and restorative justice?

That said the news that some 10,160 incidents of serious violence were informally dealt with last year (that is almost 12 times the figure from five years ago) has raised more than a few eyebrows. This is apparently contrary to existing Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidelines, which recommend that such resolutions should only be used for low-level crime.

The Police it reveals regularly use "community resolutions", which may include an apology or compensation to the victim, instead of prosecutions and cautions, despite ACPO guidelines. Now there are times when for lower level offences the use of "community resolutions" is entirely justified and entirely good sense. What this may suggest is that the criminal justice system is creaking and that any crime statistics produced should be looked at with more than a serious degree of caution if not a serious dose of incredulity.

Now I have had my suspicions about crime statistics (whether UK wide or more local) for a while, I am aware that there is a level of anecdotal dissatisfaction particularly with the police response to what they may perceive as lower level anti social behaviour related crime. The perception rightly or wrongly is that while this type of crime may be less important to our hard pressed police officers it remains important to the residents of various parts of Gwent (and no doubt elsewhere). More than a few times it has been related to me personally that when called they (the Police) just don’t come.

I think that taken as whole our creaking criminal justice system may be reaching the point where it is failing to function, it is nether providing restorative justice or dealing with cranial behaviour, let along providing an adequate degree of protection to public servants going about their work. I think that the sooner criminal justice and policing are devolved to Wales the better, that way we can at least try to ensure that our communities are properly protected and the interests of justice are served.

A WAFER THIN BLUE LINE?

At the moment, despite Teresa May (who may actually turn out to be a worse Home Secretary that Michael Howard) there are some 136,000 officers spread across the 43 forces in England and Wales. These figures for the number of police officers in England and Wales record a fall of 6,000 over the past year, as public spending cuts have bitten deep. Interestingly enough if you want to play the numbers game this fall takes us back to where we were (in numbers at least) back in 2002.

The last New Labour government learning a lesson from Mrs Thatcher (that seems to have escaped the current Con Dem Government) spent more money and employed more Police Officers and Civilian Support Staff to make services better and to buy their acquiescence. The Tory right believes that New Labour only made them more inefficient and that what with the constraints on public sector spending they believe that new ways of policing need to be explored, and that cutting substantially the back office staffing will reduce paperwork and red tape.

This is a right wing fantasy that has little basis in reality, which shows how cut off from reality they are closeted away in their own little world.  To this end, the Con Dem’s have decided that there will be elective police and crime commissioners. They justify this be suggesting its part of a value for money agenda that will protect front-line services. As for value for money, back in September 2011, the Westminster government postponed the elections for Police Commissioners from May to November of 2012.

Somewhat ironically this decision has pushed up the costs of the implementation process by around £25m to a total of £75m. The Westminster Home Affairs Committee was told last September that the £25m additional cost of staging the elections in November would not come out of the existing police budgets and the Home Office was in discussions with the Treasury about where the money would come from.

The Con Dem’s road to elected Police Commissioners in England (and Wales) which are being brought in as part of the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, has been a pretty rocky one. The plans were rejected once by the House of Lords (in May 2011), and rejected by the National Assembly (in Cardiff) who chose not to pass a Legislative Compliance Motion (LCM) , even the Association of Chief Police Officers have expressed their concerns.

As to what an elected Gwent Police Commissioner will be able to accomplish is pretty much open to question. Gwent Police are now engaged in some serious belt tightening as the force comes to terms with seriously reduced funding. Retaining Police Officers (on and off the beat) and civilian support staff has to be the bottom line.

Once you go down the path of cutting civilian support staff, which some may consider an easier and slightly more acceptable situation than reducing police numbers, there will be real consequences. A reduction in civilian support staff numbers will lead to a reduction in the availability of operational police officers, which will have consequences for all of us.

Policing, like everything else is driven by funding - this is the reality of modern (and old time) policing, our hard pressed Police Service (whether in Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys or North Wales) all need additional funding and an increase in the number of serving officers. On top of that our Police Officers actively need the active support of our communities, especially if we are seriously going to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour and to ensure proper Policing within our communities.

Lets be honest there is absolutely no reason why we should not be more creative when it comes to the ‘how are Communities are policed'. Certainly a more flexible approach to shift patterns to tackle periods when higher levels of criminal offences actually take place are higher is worth exploring and may pay dividends.

We need to actually respond to local communities concerns rather than those of Ministry of Justice's (formerly the Home Office) perceived priorities and targets. We need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when it comes to basing Policing strategies on core and periphery because the end result is that some of our communities will lose out when it comes to access to Police services and resources.

If we are really serious about reforming and reorganising our Police then we need to develop a coherent national community safety strategy with a clear approach to tackling crime and the fear of crime in our communities. And be prepared to ask and answer hard questions: do we want two tier Policing? Should Policing targets be generated by local Police officers and local communities?

And where are we going to find the money to do this because Policing is not cheap? At one level if we want to solve, curb or reduce crime in Wales, then it makes sense for the control of Policing as well as Justice and Prisons within Wales to be fully devolved to the National Assembly.

Oddly enough in Scotland where they already control their own Policing (and have done since 1945) we have not had any of this nonsense. Perhaps this is because the Scot's competently manage their own Police, I don't for a moment believe that we in Wales are less capable than the Scots or less of a nation than Scotland?

GRIM STATISTICS

There are times when the South Wales Argus justifiably draws our attention to some pretty grim statistics - today is one of those days. The figures for Domestic abuse / violence in Gwent have been released and they make pretty grim reading. News that more than 16,000 cases of domestic abuse / violence have been reported to Gwent Police in the last two years should shock us, we should also spare a thought for those cases that are not being reported and recorded.

Gwent Police figures (according to the South Wales Argus) show that there were 8,659 incidents (2,215 of which involved violence) reported in 2009/10 and 8,093 incidents (2,631 of which involved violence) of domestic abuse reported in 2010/11. The first all Wales domestic abuse conference took place last week in Cardiff (hosted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Gwent Police) as Police forces across Wales are looking at ways of protecting repeat victims of domestic abuse and encouraging the reporting of domestic abuse, at a time when they face reductions in their budgets.

While the way in which our Police Forces deal with domestic violence /abuse has improved greatly over the years, but, there is still room for improvement.The South Wales Argus raises an interesting point, perhaps it is time for a register of domestic abusers to be established, so that the repeat perpetrators of domestic abuse who come to notice can be monitored and tracked.

This is something that the Association of Chief Police Officers have been suggesting for some years, back in November 2009 they suggested that:

• Persons at risk of violence have the ‘right to know’ about relevant information;
  
• consideration of a new criminal offence whereby a prosecution may be brought on the basis of evidence of repeated violent behaviour (known as a ‘Course of Conduct’) against different victims of violence; and
  
• that the law should be changed to enable the police to issue a Domestic Violence Protection Order of up to 14 days duration, to prevent a suspected perpetrator of this form of violence from entering the address of the victim and/or to prevent contact with the victim.

This may help provide a basic level of protection for those who suffer domestic abuse / violence. Some Police Forces in the 1990's as I recall from a previous life actively looked at ways to remove the onus of prosecution away from the victim, something that would help to flag up repeat offenders. In my previous employment I saw the tragic consequences, that could (and can still) result from the situation where the victims of domestic abuse have been too terrified to take the step of co-operating with the Police and prosecuting authorities.

Victims of domestic abuse come form all levels of society, there is no stereotypical victim, and victims all deserve equal and easy access to justice and protection from abuse. Further progress must be made to take the onus of prosecution away from the victims of domestic abuse, while at the same time ensuring that victims and their children get the fullest levels of protection, safety and security from their abusers.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

I have long believed that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have never really prioritised any real concerns for Wales, other than nominally. Now Plaid believes that crime and justice should be devolved in its entirety to the National Assembly for Wales, and is committed to ensuring that local policing and local democratic control is maintained and enhanced.

While Plaid believes that cutting front-line policing at a time of recession is absurd, the Con Dems have other ideas. The Con Dem Government have different priorities, not just the harsh public sector cuts, which include amongst other things slashing central police funding by 20% in the middle of a recession, this decision is absurdity writ large and entirely devoid of common sense, on a par almost with reducing the size of the UK armed forces while out of European theatre commitments expand.

The Con Dem plan to introduce the unpopular policy of elected police commissioners at a cost of £50million whilst simultaneously overseeing devastating cuts to front-line policing goes well beyond adding insult to injury. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has said that this will mean there will be 12,000 fewer police officers as a result. It has also been estimated that 579 police officers in Wales will now face redundancy.

HMIC (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary) has said that a cut beyond 12% would “almost certainly reduce police availability”. Despite everything the UK Government has forced through plans which will see responsibility for appointing Police Commissioners given to the Secretary of State for Wales, despite the Welsh Assembly's opposition to the move.

As far as I can seen it appears that what little common sense the Con Dems had has been ditched. Most people will be aware that historically, in times of recession, the crime rates increase. So the Con Dem cuts mean that our communities will come to rely on the police more and more. Despite this fact the UK Government thinks it is acceptable to force a cut of 20% to the policing budget - this is madness.

Our Police forces cannot afford to lose some of their most experienced police officers, who will be the first to go. I wish someone would explain to me (and everyone else) just how exactly the UK Government honestly expects to see a fall in crime rates at the same time as slashing resources and planning to reduce the number of civilian support staff and Police Officers.

The planned introduction of elected Police Commissioners is nothing more than a flawed outdated ideology - and yet the Con Dem Government is providing £50million to force them through, whilst they simultaneously oversee devastating cuts to front-line policing. This whole sorry mess really shows where the Tories and Lib Dems priorities actually really lie, clearly Wales will never be a priority for them, fortunately it is for Plaid.

THE THIN BLUE LINE?

An independent review of police pay and conditions in England and Wales (undertaken by the former rail regulator Tom Winsor) has called for the abolition of a series of allowances and special payments. This may mean that Police Officers on front-line duties might see their pay rise but 40% may well lose out. The review has called for an end to the £1,212 competence-related threshold payment, the Special Priority Payment of up to £5,000 and says no officers should move up the pay scale for two years.

The review has also suggested suspending chief officer and superintendent bonuses. It notes that police earn 10 to 15% more than other emergency workers and the armed forces and in some areas such as Wales and the North East they are paid up to 60% more than average local earnings. The review suggests that only officers working unsocial hours should be paid for doing so, with those working between 2000 and 0600 getting an extra 10% on their basic hourly pay.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has said that the Westminster Government cuts could lead to the loss of 28,000 officer and civilian staff jobs over the next four years. The Con Dem Government is preparing to reduce funding for the police by 20% by 2014-15.Currently 43 Police forces in England and Wales employ about 244,000 people, with 143,000 police officers and 101,000 civilian support staff. ACPO has predicted the loss of 12,000 police officers and 16,000 civilian staff as a result of spending cuts.

We already know that Gwent Police are to face cuts (potentially more than £24 million) over the next four years is not good news. This is a direct consequence of the Con Dem Westminster government's recent comprehensive spending review, which as everyone knows has seriously slashed public spending across the board. Gwent Police are now going to be engaged in a prolonged and serious bout of belt tightening as the force comes to terms with seriously reduced funding.

The retention of Police Officers (on and off the beat) and civilian support staff should be the bottom line. Once you go down the line of cutting civilian support staff, which some may consider an easier and slightly more acceptable situation than reducing police numbers, there will be consequences. A reduction in civilian support staff numbers will inevitably lead to a reduction in the availability of operational police officers, which will have consequences for all of us.

Policing, just like everything else is driven by funding - this is the reality of modern (and old time) policing, our hard pressed Police Service (whether in Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys or North Wales) all need additional funding and an increase in the number of serving officers. On top of that our Police Officers actively need the active support of our communities, especially if we are seriously going to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour and to ensure proper Policing within our communities.

There is absolutely no reason why we cannot be far more creative when it comes to how are Communities are policed. We certainly need a more flexible approach to shift patterns to tackle those periods of the day when higher levels of criminal offences take place and need to actually respond to local communities real concerns rather than the Ministry of Justice's (formerly the Home Office) perceived priorities and targets. We need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when it comes to basing Policing strategies on core and periphery because the end result is that some of our our communities will lose out when it comes to access to Police services and resources.

If we want to solve, curb or reduce crime in Wales, then it makes sense for the control of Policing as well as Justice and Prisons within Wales to be fully devolved to the National Assembly, much of this already happens in Scotland, are we less capable than the Scots or less of a nation than Scotland? - I don't think so!

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – A WELCOME NEW APPROACH

Much needs to be done to protect victims of domestic violence and members of the public from people who are serial violent offenders. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has just presented the UK Government with the results of a six month review which has looked at potential new measures that could be taken to tackle serial perpetrators of violence against women. The review which was lead by Chief Constable Brian Moore (who is the ACPO lead on domestic abuse) was made at the request of the then former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Proposals which have come under consideration in the ACPO review include:

• Persons at risk of violence have the ‘right to know’ about relevant information;

• consideration of a new criminal offence whereby a prosecution may be brought on the basis of evidence of repeated violent behaviour (known as a ‘Course of Conduct’) against different victims of violence; and

• that the law should be changed to enable the police to issue a Domestic Violence Protection Order of up to 14 days duration, to prevent a suspected perpetrator of this form of violence from entering the address of the victim and/or to prevent contact with the victim.

ACPO says that it wants ‘to go after those serial perpetrators who go from relationship to relationship, growing in confidence and menace’. This review should be warmly welcomed and hopefully will be a first step towards a fresh approach which will actively deal with domestic violence and its perpetrators.