Cuts !! Saving Money...

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Where could the police service save money?  There must be better ways to save money than to cut frontline jobs, Any good ideas?

[guy incognito]

Loads!

Get rid of mid-level gaffers who seem to have nothing better to do than come up with targets, pointless plans or carry out inspections, all of which they come up with to further their own careers. I wish they would leave me alone to get on with my job.

Or how about getting rid of some of the unneeded "support" staff? In order to submit a report I have to type it, email to a "typist" who does little more than copy and paste it onto our computer system. Couldn't I do that myself? The same could be said for a whole variety of computer and intelligence systems that cops dont have access to, meaning I have to go an ask a civillian to do the job for me. I am perfectly capable of using a keyboard and mouse myself.

Scrap or reduce all these crime/pro-active/community/safer neighbourhood teams. While they might be needed in some force areas, they aren't in mine and are little more than a publicity stunt IMO. Instead of them stealing the detections of other officers or getting their photos in the paper, why not get them out on the front line? I work in a fairly small town (population 48,000ish) that has a hospital, train and bus station. Someone came up with the idea (or more likely copied from a bigger force) of NHS and transport "liason officers". I have no idea what they do except drink tea and chat up the nurses. Total waste of a uniform.

Money could be saved with a rethink of the shambolic legal system we have, certainly in Scotland. I spent 2 days sitting in a court recently, during my leave, for double time, only to be told to go home because they were rescheduling the trial. I'm certainly not complaining about the money, it's worth hundreds of pounds to me, but it does seem like an absurd waste of time and money.

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Guy
The saddest thing is, from my experience, your observations are repeated over most of the UK.  All the points you mention are exactly the same problems I have seen in my career.  Civvi's who's job it was to assist you as an operational police officer, just making another level of rules for you to negotiate.  Now they have a carreer structure most of them think they are in charge of police officers rather than there to assist them.  All your other points ring the same bell here.....Just like the hospitals though, you won't be seeing many real cutbacks in middle management - they make all the decisions!

[johnboy]

It's the same in all public services, they have made so much middle management, instead of helping they all think they have power (well  they DO actuall) and tie everything up in knots.   Get rid of some civvi middle management, most of them don't know that they are there to help police, not make rules up to hinder us

[Salforal]

Agree with all that's been said so far.

We could be more efficient if more dross was killed at source, i.e. call handlers. It's very noticeable when a bobby is covering call handling for a day...... all the civvies are too scared and/or too inexperienced and lacking in practical knowledge not to log everything that comes in....

Economies of scale through standard kit/vehicles/uniform, etc. purchased from one supplier rather than each force buying its own.......

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

I remember before I retired that I was speaking to an ACC who was justifying to me how they needed call centres, he cited that since being installed, the calls being received were nearly five times the volume of those being taken two years before. 

I pointed out that the reason for this was that you had to phone at least and usually more than five times to get to speak to who you wanted, and that was police officers calling who actually knoew where they wanted the call to go, the public had no chance....

He was not amused, walked off and spoke to someone else, like they do....

Don't call me old and cynical, trouble is I am.

[Hendo]

It's all abou CYA (cover your arse) these days. It really hampers the job and creates vast sections of the establishment that are they to "back up" what line officers do on a regular basis. Don't see it changing anytime soon though!

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

In the 1980's someone came up with the idea in TVP of what was called "Risk Management" - They trusted everyone to do their job, it worked great for a while.  But they even did away with the station enquiry register, where all enquiries coming in from other forces etc were logged.  At least when someone was following up on an enquiry you could look to see who it was issued to.  So, no register, no idea where it's gone.  That wasn't risk management. as usual someone couldn't use their common sense.  That was 30 years ago and I guess nothing will change anytime soon.
Let the bosses worry 'litigation limitation' - they should be the ones to worry, it is their procedures that lead to most litigation!

[johnboy]

Like the sound of 'Risk Management' - Maybe it will come round again one day, most innitiatives do.  There are so many civvi's now making you jump through hoops and telling you how to do everything, I thought they are supposed to support the police and take admin away from them, they just seem to make more and more paperwork and no one has the bollocks to say it how it is, they all want the next promotion and seem to tell senior officers what they want to hear rather than the plain honest truth, whatever happened to integrity.  If you say something honest you are often apparently being negative.  It is only positive if you agree with them, despite the fact that you are , shall we say, not being honest.

[guy incognito]

I've heard rumours about that cuts are being planned in the Airwave system. Certainly within my force we are discouraged from using point to point or unnecessary telephoney (no calls to put in orders at the takeaway I'm afraid).

What really concerns me would be masts being shut or the signal getting weaker. It can be almost non-existant in some areas of my beat and a reduction in signal strength would have a major impact on public and officer safety IMO.

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Sounds about right, yet most forces pay a 'one off' huge fee yearly for telephone and airwave, regardless of usage, so bosses trying to stem usage would be right.....

[guy incognito]

To my disgust, the CCTV and Airwave sets in our vehicles are an unnecessary luxuary that we can no longer afford. Somehow we still have money to pay for hot meals for the custodies though. 

It would seem that mid-level bosses with nothing better to do have been going around the front line putting "not required" stickers on things. Perhaps they should start in their own offices.

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

What I always found amusing was when senior officers, being made aware that people on the ground probably know more about things that can easily be changed for the better, have always been told they should do plenty of consultation before making radical changes.  They do...............BUT, they first decide what they want to change, then they issue a consultation initiative to get feedback from those it affects and know about the consequences, then that feedback suggests they should make and alternative change........THEN they go ahead with their original plan anyway.  It will always be the same, because they assume they know better, infact they probably genuinely think they have a better view of all the issues, in which case why bother with the consultation process?
 

[guy incognito]

Well, today the Deputy Chief went on tour, popping into the station for chat (nothing brings the office brigade away from their desks like the visit of senior management).

Not for the first time I found myself wondering how I was in a room with about 75 people who work at my station, yet the total beat was about 8. 

Anyhoo, it looks like everyone will be working an hour less each week. The choice facing my force seems to be this or folk losing their job and while I am the first to say that there are loads of unnecessary jobs in the Police, I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

It also seems there will be more mutual resources between forces (search, traffic, dog unit etc). We'll see how that works out, certainly I don't see the point in waiting for a dog handler if they are going to take an hour to get there. On the other hand, does every Police force need a fraud squad or a wildlife crime unit? Surely there is a case for specialist units to be regional.

What I dont think people realise is that the cuts are going to have an effect on our service, something that I was pleased to hear our Dep admit today. If there is something good to come out of his then it might be a realitiy check on people who expect Police to wave a magic wand and solve their problems, many of which do not involve anything criminal.
Anyone who has done this job will be aware of the nonsense you have to deal with (usually involving alcohol and/or mobile phones). Do we really need Police Officers spending days trying to track someone down who is never at home, because they have called in to say someone has scratched their car and they wish to report it? I think we spend far too much time/money on incidents that are not crimes or are minor crimes that have no chance of bringing someone to justice . Advice could be given over the phone at a call handling level or through online reporting (which I see the Met use).

Hopefully events that are demanding of Police resources (Football, Parades etc.) will pick up the bill for it. A yearly event that takes place where I work costs us £100,000, but the organisers only pay £20,000 in costs. I know Policing isnt a business, but it's not hard to see how we are getting into financial trouble.

I do think Police are victims of their own sucess at times, lowering crime year on year and increasing officer numbers (if you believe the stats). However there is no way you can cut 25% of an organisations money and expect it not to have an impact on service.

[chef7]

always double up on night duty to save on two car attending drop of and pick up for taking statements geographic patrol areas