THE SILK ROAD (I)

Taken as a whole the latest Silk recommendations, if accepted in their entirety by Westminster, can be said to mark out a road to stabilise and develop our devolutionary settlement. Somewhat understandably the media focus on the latest Silk recommendations has concentrated on aspects of Policing and Youth (Criminal) Justice.

There are other potentially far more significant recommendations, although you might be mistaken from much of the media’s focus on policing and criminal justice. One of the better overall analyses of the latest Silk Commission recommendations can be found on the Oggyblggy blog site.

Silk has also looked at transport and natural resources, which may move us towards a much more balanced devolutionary settlement, closer to the Scottish model. While many transport powers are already devolved, the Silk Commission took evidence that suggested that it would make sense to change the current devolutionary settlement so that the allocation of responsibilities more coherent.

Silk has recommended the further devolution of powers on rail, ports, bus and taxi regulation, along with control over speed and drink drive limits. The recommendations would create a simpler more coherent arrangement and could lead to the development of a much more integrated transport strategy for Wales. Silk has also recommended that the functions of the Traffic Commissioner in relation to buses should be devolved to Wales.

While there are understandably no recommendations in relation to the inter-city cross-border rail franchises, which Silk suggested should remain non-devolved, there is scope for the Welsh Government to have a greater role in the appointment of a new franchise operator. In relation to roads, there no recommendations for any changes in powers but it has been suggested that there should be much closer coordination between the two Governments.This is something which could ensure a more strategic long term approach rather than switching transport priorities back and for between east-west and north-south.

The recommendations should be welcomed and hopefully Westminster will put our national interests before its own party political interests and rapidly devolve the further powers.  Too much time has been wasted and too many opportunities have been lost because the National Assembly actually lacked adequate powers to work for Wales, to act in the Welsh national interest and to build a stronger, more prosperous nation.

POLICING WALES?

One of the options within the recently published Stevens report into Policing was the suggestion of a single unified police service for all of Wales as has happened recently in Scotland (in April 2013). There are some merits to this idea, including various economies of scale, potential cost savings and the possibilities of concentrating resources to develop all Wales approaches to drugs, car crime, human trafficking, amongst other things. That said I think that we have however, passed the point where Westminster can simply make and implement decisions about the structure and organisation of policing in Wales let alone decide what our policing priorities are. However, our police services are organised on a fundamental level local accountability of Policing are paramount especially if we are to uphold the public’s confidence in the police service. Welsh police forces are working their way through some significant budget cuts, some of which could have some long term consequences for the way our communities are policed. One consequence of policing and policing priorities being decided by the Ministry of Justice is that of policing resources being pulled from one area of Wales to another resulting in some parts of our country ending up with pretty minimal Police coverage, something that is unacceptable. Whatever the merits or perhaps not, of a single all Wales Police service to one side we need a Policing structure that is fully accountable to our communities needs rather than those of the Ministry of Justice. The old local authority policing committee structures failed to deliver proper accountability. At a very basic level Policing needs to be accountable to the people of Wales, both locally and nationally, so before any future decisions on the shape of Policing in our country are made, control of Policing and Criminal Justice needs to be devolved to Wales.

LABOUR CONFUSED OVER POLICING

Plaid Cymru has described the Labour Welsh government’s view of policing as "confused" and "lacking any clear thinking" after the relevant minister seemed unable to answer questions on the issue during questions in the Senedd.　

Plaid Cymru AM Jocelyn Davies had asked the Minister what actions he would support in order to protect policing in Wales from UK government cuts, and why he believes the issue should remain in the hands of the Conservative Secretary of state in Westminster, rather that being under Welsh control.

Under questioning from Ms Davies, the Minister refused to back the devolution of policing to Wales.

Plaid Cymru AM, Jocelyn Davies, said:

"Both Police officers and the general public are very concerned about the impact that the UK government cuts will have on policing on the ground. Those concerns have been repeated by the minister himself who has been more than happy to criticise the way our police service is being run.
　
"In light of that I asked the Labour Minister whether he would support devolving policing to Wales, thereby taking it out of the hands of Theresa May and bringing it under the control of his government here in Wales. However the Minister, clearly unwilling to give a clear answer, gave a rather confused answer about budgets.　

"It is high time that the Labour government here in Wales clarified its position on this matter as it appears they currently lack any clear thinking on the issue. Either they are content to leave policing to be torn to shreds in the hands of the Tories in Westminster or they should be prepared to stand up and take responsibility for it here.　

"Plaid Cymru wants to see the powers and budget for policing devolved to Wales in order to ensure that Welsh communities get the service most suited to their needs."　

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?

DISORDER, POLICING AND PROTEST

Very little (or nothing) in this world is a simple matter of being black of white; there are many shades of grey in between, especially when it comes to how large demonstrations are policed and even more so when there is resultant disorder which is splashed across the TV and the Press subsequent to the events of the Student protests. One thing, however, is very true, little is added to the eloquence of your argument by trying to stove in the head of a Police Officer.

We should ask (and it is proper in a free society that we do ask) searching questions about the Police tactics (especially 'Kettling') used by the Police at large demo's - I have been on both sides of the line so to speak and have seen both sides of confrontational demonstrations. I can accept that in heated or tense situations a Police officer at the end of his or her tether after hours of provocation (from the usual suspects the SWP and their ilk) might on occasion be less than polite when he or she asks people to move out of the way or along. It is worth noting that press photographers have lived with this sort of thing for years, but, there is no excuse for excessive force or violence. This does not, however, make it acceptable conduct or excuse blatant brutality.

One thing to remember is that there are those amongst the thousands of peaceful and law abiding demonstrators who attend demo's, there are those (and this is by way of experience and observation rather than the near permanent hysterical rant usually found in the pages of the Daily Mail or the Daily Telegraph) who do systematically direct what can be best described as focused and targeted hostility towards our Police officers for their own ends.

Whether we like it or not there are those who are looking to provoke a tangible public reaction for their own purposes, and who are more than happy to hide behind more naive and inexperienced demonstrators at large demo's and high-jack peaceful demonstrations. Now Police officers are effectively empowered to use reasonable force providing that it is proportionate to the situation they find themselves in, if excessive force is used by either side then it should be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Any Police officers who knowingly or maliciously crosses the line when it comes to acceptable standards of behaviour should be firmly dealt with; as should any demonstrator who likewise may have crossed the line of acceptable behaviour. It is important for us to develop and retain a sense of perspective, we should remember that the vast majority of Police Officers and the vast majority of demonstrators did not cross the line when it comes to acceptable standards of behaviour at the Student protests, only a very small minority of people at the protests did so.

At the end of the day we are dealing with Policing by consent within a democratic society and it is important to remember that Police officers are only human and may react, as would anyone who has been subject to systematic provocation at the hands of a very small minority hell bent on inciting or causing trouble by provoking a reaction from harassed Police officers.

Now it works both ways because the public would expect overly thuggish or aggressive violent behaviour and the use of excessive force towards peaceful demonstrators and similar behaviour from demonstrators towards our Police officers, to be dealt with. Violent conduct from public servants to the public and from the public towards public servants is not, has never been and never will be acceptable and should be subject to the full penalties and rigours of the law - not trial by media or the Daily Mail.

THE THIN BLUE LINE...

A measure of understanding on the attitude from the new Government towards our Police forces may be gleaned from the proposed cuts that have been announced by Nick Herbert (Policing and Criminal Justice Minister ) as part of a UK-wide cut of £125m in funding for forces. South Wales Police faces cuts of £2.8m, North Wales Police faces cuts of £1.4m, while Gwent Police faces cuts of £1.3m and Dyfed-Powys Police cuts of around £900,000. The cuts in funding for 2010/2011 have been announced as part of efforts to help reduce the UK's budget deficit

During the final stages of the last Westminster Election Campaign, everyone (and every political party) was heard calling ever loudly for more Police Officers on the beat which happened to be something which most people wanted to see. Now if you are lucky and get a quiet moment and you use it to ask any senior Police officer about beat policing, then especially in a guarded quiet moment and you may get told that it's probably one of the most inefficient form of Policing going, with officers walking for (on average) something like 49 miles before they come across a crime in progress.

Now while this may be true, it obviously ignores the deterrence and reassurance that is generated on our streets and in our communities and may well be influenced by pressures from the Ministry of Justice, a lack of Police officers and the need to generate reams and reams of arrest related statistics. Maybe this is driven by a desire for local bobbies on the beat that goes back to an earlier simpler era, maybe it’s TV inspired nostalgia driven desire for that mythical Dixon of Dock Green / Heartbeat figure which has now almost become a real historical memory – until killed off by successive police reorganisations, force mergers, budget cuts and top down largely then Home Office driven changes in the way our communities are policed i.e. panda cars, the loss of local Police stations, reduced opening hours, etc.

Now nostalgia and Policing are a particularly heady and dangerous mix, I can personally recall Conservative politicians in the 1990's who argued against the use of body armour, stab vests and side handled batons, pepper sprays, etc – saying that it would change the nature of Policing, create unbreakable barriers of hostility between the public and the Police, end tradition, etc. All that aside, one thing all of those things did was significantly reduce the number of Police Officers stabbed and killed in line of their duty – so enough with the nostalgia.

When it comes dealing with crime and effects of crime on our communities we really have to get past the usual meaningless platitudes about being tough on crime, etc. Certainly in the final weeks of the Westminster campaign the voters heard plenty of them what with the various London based parties making much out of how they were going to get serious about cutting crime, reducing anti social behaviour, and making our communities safer. Now that the dust had settled, then we shall all get a measure of the new government and see how they act as the empty rhetoric fades away.

Cuts, are not the answer, for unless we will actually seriously invest in the Welsh Police Services and make more creative use of existing financial and manpower resources. We could begin to make our communities safer by making more use of Community Support Officers, but without full powers of arrest, and lacking in proper training this can be nothing more than a temporary short term solution, what we need are more Police Officers.

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.

We 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 or 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.

The fact that the Ministry of Justice (and lets be honest changing the name has not fixed the basic problem) has long lost the plot and has become bogged down in a morass of spin, number crunching, paperwork, bureaucracy and red tape; add to the fact that it largely exists in an unreal world far removed from the realities of day-to-day policing on streets of Abergavenny, Caldicot, Cwmbran, Newport, Underwood or Tredegar, let alone Llanbedr Pont Steffan (especially on a Saturday night at chucking out time).

If we are really serious about reforming and reorganising Policing then we need to develop a coherent national community safety strategy for Wales with a clear approach to tackling crime and the fear of crime in our communities. And ask and answer the hard questions: do we want two tier Policing? Should Policing target be generated by local Police officers and local communities, where are we going to find the money, because Policing is not cheap?

If we want to solve or curb 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 think not!

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE...

Time to play spot the difference - here we go:

- Scotland has devolved authority over Policing

- Northern Ireland will soon have devolved power over Policing

- Wales has....oh yes, not a lot when it comes to influencing the way our streets are Policed

Now, while Tory leader, David Cameron has assured Martin McGuiness and Peter Robinson, that he will provide the Stormont Government with funds to pay for the transfer of power over policing and criminal justice from Westminster to Stormont, as per Gordo's pledge, we will hear very little about anything being promised to Wales...from the Tories save for more cuts.

Interesting stuff, especially as the matter of devolving Policing and Criminal Justice powers to Northern Ireland considering the complications of the recent past, has been a difficult one. When it comes to Policing and Justice matters Scotland pretty much looks after its own affairs, we in Wales merely get lumped in with England within the Ministry of Justice.

Hmm, what about Wales, by way of comparison with Northern Ireland, it should be a reasonably easy task to devolve the same powers to the Welsh Assembly Government (in Cardiff)....

Well New Labour (what's left of it) in the dying days of the Brown Government (and the self-serving Welsh Labour MP's in Westminster) has no real appetite to transfer further powers to Cardiff.

The problem with the Tories is that in their heart of hearts don't actually believe in the concept of Wales as a nation, a political entity or anything else and they certainly don't believe that Sovereignty or devolved decision making power in any shape or form should really reside with the people of Wales.

Here we go again, both New Labour and the Tories are relegating Wales to a shabby second class status amongst the devolved governments in the UK.

Is this how the years of Tory neglect of Wales begins? Don't say you have not been warned...

ON THE BEAT

The Scottish SNP Government has hit its target of boosting police officer numbers in Scotland early. The number of Scottish police officers has increased from 16,234 in May 2007 to 17,278 officers in June 2009. The Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said there was now a record number of police on the streets. While there has been the usual muttering from the usual Unionist Opposition party suspect’s who have accused SNP ministers of political grandstanding, several Scottish Police forces have seen an increase in the last quarter, including Strathclyde Police which recruited 186 officers. The Strathclyde force currently employs 8,051 officers. The Scottish Government said the number of police officers would continue to rise as the Scottish Government invests £23bn between 2008 and 2010 to ensure that local authorities have the resources they need to deliver services.

Pity we don’t have the Ministry of Justice’s powers over policing here in Wales…

Policing and Disorder

Nothing in this world is a simple matter of black of white; there are many shades of grey in between, especially when it comes to how large demonstrations are policed and even more so when there is resultant disorder which is splashed across the TV and the Press subsequent to the events of the G20 protests.

While you can (and should) ask searching questions about the tactics used by the Police at large demos, and I can accept that in heated situations a Police officer might be less than polite when he or she asks people to move out of the way or along. As an aside, it is worth noting that press photographers have lived with this sort of thing for years, but, there is no excuse for excessive force or violence.

One thing to remember is that there are those who attend demos, who systematically direct what can be best described as targeted hostility towards Police officers. There are those who are looking to provoke a tangible public reaction for their own purposes, and who are more than happy to hide behind more naive and inexperienced demonstrators at large demos.

Now Police officers are effectively empowered to use reasonable force providing that it is proportionate to the situation they find themselves in, if excessive force is used by either side then it should be fully investigated. Any Police officers who cross the line when it comes to acceptable standards of behavior will be dealt with; as should any demonstrators who likewise may have crossed the line of acceptable behaviour.

It is important for us to develop and retain a sense of perspective, we should remember that the vast majority of Police Officers and the vast majority of demonstrators did not cross the line when it comes to acceptable standards of behaviour at the G20 protests, only a small minority did so.

At the end of the day we are dealing with Policing by consent within a democratic society and it is important to remember that Police officers are only human and may react, as would anyone who has been subject to systematic provocation at the hands of a very small minority hell bent on inciting or causing trouble by provoking a reaction from harassed Police officers.

Now it works both ways because the public would expect overly thuggish or aggressive violent behaviour and the use of excessive force towards peaceful demonstrators and similar behaviour from demonstrators towards our Police officers, to be dealt with. Violent conduct from public servants to the public and from the public towards public servants is not, has never been and never will be acceptable and should be subject to the full penalties and rigours of the law - not trial by media.