Can police do more for less?

The man who suggested at a Parliamentary grilling that constables spent too much time sitting behind their desks doing “two-fingered typing” rather than fighting crime, he has now gone further and put the onus on the police to place a far greater onus on preventing crime.

This is both welcome and long overdue. If police officers can form effective alliances with schools, health professionals and law-abiding citizens, they have a far greater chance of preventing communities spiralling into decline because a small number of hardened criminals think that they are above the law.

It is also important, as Mr Winsor highlighted, that the criminal justice system supports the police at all times – reducing rates of reoffending is critical if crime rates are to continue their downward trend.

Yet it will not be easy. For, as both Mr Winsor and Humberside’s recently retired chief constable Tim Hollis point out on the opposite page, the thin blue line is becoming even more stretched as a consequence of the Government’s spending squeeze.

As both intimate, it is the duty of police chiefs to operate effectively within such constraints – and such a mature and measured outlook contrasts with the unrealistic expectations of Labour and its trade union backers.

However this requires a relentless focus on doing more for less and Mr Hollis is right to express concern at how many of the newly-elected crime commissioners appear to have been preoccupied with appointing deputies, and other support staff, at considerable expense rather than focusing on the implementation of policies to make Yorkshire’s streets safer.

It is a focus which needs to change after apathy was the prevailing theme of last November’s inaugural commissioner elections. Yet the real test of this policy change is still to come; namely whether commissioners can work 
in tandem with experienced chief constables to reduce crime and the fear of 
crime. And, on this, the jury is still out.