A mobile police force?
Peter Hoskin 2:14pm
Reading the news release, I initially thought that Gordon Brown's "new kind of policing" - by which every household in England and Wales will be given e-mail/mobile phone details to contact "neighbourhood police teams" - sounded like a good idea.
But then two figures jumped out at me. The first is the cost of the scheme - some £325 million. And the second is the percentage reduction in crime that the pilot version brought about in Clapham - some 0.9 percent.
Of course, falls in crime shouldn't be sniffed at. But £325m is a not-insignificant 3 percent of total spending on police in England and Wales. It's a large commitment to make - especially on the back of so slim a crime-reduction.
The uncharitable might say that it's the Government wasting money again. And if this report is anything to go by, I suspect they'd be right...
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Comments
Trumpeter Lanfried
February 25th, 2008 4:37pmHow the f*** can it cost £325 million? They must pluck these figures out of the air. To reduce crime, build more prisons and lock up more criminals. It's not rocket science. In fact, if Government figures are to be believed, it's working already. Jails full to capacity: crime falling.
RW
February 25th, 2008 4:57pmI can't wait to boot up my laptop in the middle of the night, while burglars break in downstairs, in order to email my neighbourhood police team. No doubt there will be an automatic no-reply acknowledgement service ("We acknowledge the receipt of your email. A police customer services officer will reply to you in due course. We receive many such emails, so please be patient. If you need counselling, please ring this number"). Who are the bloody fools, so utterly out of touch with the reality of ordinary life, who are allowed even to suggest, never mind implement these expensive, ludicrous ideas? Meanwhile I have lived in a small South Gloucestershire village for twelve years and have never seen a uniformed police officer on the beat. But, to be fair, two of them in bright yellow hazard jackets regularly park on the corner of my road, ostentatiously filming motorists. Uncharitable - me?
Nicholas
February 25th, 2008 5:12pmAssuming there is a "neighbourhood police team" to contact. This barmy idea also seems to undermine the proven concept of the central police control room. Perhaps they could issue us all with police whistles so we can tootle up the nearest beat constable? Oops, forgot - that was Victorian London and British policing has had 100 years of progress since then . . . .
Geoff
February 25th, 2008 5:26pmI live in the pilot area, and other than some posters in shops featuring the smiling members of the neighbourhood team, I have noticed no difference. If every household was supposed to receive details of their team's phone numbers, I certainly never received them, and having spoken to friends, nor did they. And in terms of a police presence on te streets, I've noticed no difference whatsoever. So I have no idea how the pilot made any difference at all.
William Norton
February 26th, 2008 9:43amPeter Hoskins: This dazzling proposal is just an exciting extension of the Bangalore Call Centre model which has done so much to revolutionise modern banking and make it more accessible and closer to the customer. So, don't worry about the cost: they'll pay for it by closing down and selling off a few more police stations....and by bringing in Neighbourhood Email Support Officers, to help the Community Support Officers who are meant to be helping the actual Police Officers, whom we don't need any more, because we've closed all the police stations.