A recent report from HMIC has warned that Britain’s police forces aren’t as well equipped to prevent crime as they have been in the past. The annual report assesses how effective our police forces are at keeping people safe and reducing crime. The report covers all 43 forces in England and Wales. It wasn’t all bad news, the inspection found that most forces provide a good service but the increased demands on their resources driven in part by austerity and the rise in cyber crime, and what the report refers to as complex crime, have all placed additional pressures and increasing demand on policing.
However, the Police Federation has responded to the report claiming that “talk of austerity is actually too simplistic.” In a statement published in March by the Police Federation they cite the reduction in the central budget for policing and the significant drop in the number of police officers as being at the root of many of the issues.
The HMIC report also highlights a significant shortfall in the numbers of qualified and experienced detectives which is putting the public at risk.
The lack of qualified and experienced detectives is a concern for all of us and something which must be addressed.
The Police Federation have called for a debate on the issues. Steve White, Chair of the Federation of England and Wales said, “This report really has got to be a wake-up call. There now needs to be a proper debate around how much the public and Government want from their police service and how much they really want to spend on it. The public and our officers deserve as much.”
At Peel Solutions we welcome the report and the call from the Police Federation for further debate on how to address the issues.
The lack of trained, experienced detectives and the growing pressures on the already stretched policing services is something we hear about regularly from police officers and former police officers on our training courses.
At Peel Solutions offer a range of investigative training courses which can help police forces to address skills gaps in this area. We also have an extensive register of trained and experienced former detectives who we can supply to forces on a temporary basis, in times of high demand or critical need. Information on our recruitment solutions can be found here.
More information on our investigative skills courses can be found here.