There was probably a chorus of support in Middle England following publication of the Winsor report this week…‘Probably’..?
Why don’t you actually find out if there WAS a ‘chorus of support’?
… which proposed ending the "job for life" culture of the police and opening the way for new recruits with business backgrounds to join senior ranks directly.Put like that, I think I can see why you didn’t.
You knew that ‘Middle England’ is only too well aware what an utter disaster that policy has been in all other public sectors (teaching, for one)…
Overall, the public wants to support the police but is frequently perplexed by what the service is doing; all too often disappointed with police activity (or the lack of it); concerned at the apparent gap that is growing between them and their police; and hungry for change.Do you assume that they are ‘hungry for change’ to the system that you are proposing then?
Winsor's research was immensely detailed and the results are impressive.Well, no. It wasn’t. If it was, why would most of the MSM be concentrating on the ludicrous ‘fitness findings’ and not on the other, far more damaging recommendations?
Like….these:
He argues strongly for raising the initial educational standards for entry above the pitifully low level to which they have sunk in recent years. He recommends an approach similar to that taken by large corporate bodies, the armed forces and others: a robust recruiting programme in Russell Group universities to capture some of the best each year and, with rigorous and demanding training, accelerating some 80 or so annually to the rank of superintendent (think army major, or departmental head in a multinational) after around eight years' service. Within five or eight years, a critical mass should have begun to develop which would be able to effect tangible change.And within five or eight years (don’t you mean ‘between’?) the damage’ll have been done. We've already seen the havoc a policy of recruiting graduates has wreaked on the ranks, as they chase increasingly bizarre 'popular' diktats and social engineering targets, haven't we?
And between fine and eight years you'll have faded into even more obscurity too. Funny, that...
And if we have prided ourselves in the past that the British police system was so good that we could (and did) export our own senior officers to lead police organisations abroad, how can we object if some of those successful in other common-law countries (Australia, New Zealand, the US and others) occasionally seek the top posts here?What stops them now? Certainly they can be consulted, as the recent flirtation with top New York cop Billy Bratton showed.
This review, long overdue, identifies a sensible way ahead. It now requires an equally bold and brave government to seize the opportunity.It’s a pity we don’t have a bold and brave government that’s bold and brave enough to bin this report.
Promotion should come from within the ranks, no-one especially a chief constable should not have spent anything less than a year as a lowly constable to get an idea of the real world.
ReplyDelete"bold and brave"? I'd settle for 'vaguely compos mentis'
ReplyDelete"He argues strongly for raising the initial educational standards for entry above the pitifully low level to which they have sunk in recent years" ..
ReplyDeleteI stand to be corrected .. but weren't the educational entry standards lowered in the first place, so as to permit the recruitment & entry of persons from certain demographics, who were too thick to pass the entrance exams as they stood ?
Julia, I am from Australia and so I am missing something here. I like your blog and often find myself in agreement with you. However I do not understand your reasons for objection to the Windsor report. This is not to say I agree with the report, but merely that I do not understand your objection. Could you, or some other commenter, please give me a quick explanation?
ReplyDeleteNice post Julia.I imagine this will bring out the anti's in force having a good laugh at my expense.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone who is a critic out there is unhappy with my colleagues at the moment,give it a few years and you will have something to moan about.As will I.
PS Captain Haddock-spot on again.
Captain Haddock correctly identifies that the lowering of educational standards was brought about so as to facilitate the recruitment of those for whom English was not the "mother-tongue". Similarly the abolition of minimum height requirement arose from a belief that the average height of some races was less than that of caucasians. The reduction in fitness standards came about because of the desire to be "fair" to both sexes.
ReplyDeleteThe flawed philosophy of having the police reflecting the communities they serve has proved disastrous, the sooner a meritocracy is restored the better.
Over the years, police have brought their service into disrepute. The installation of an embarrassing excess of lazy, stupid and corrupt employees; most of whom are proving very difficult to winkle, is a major weakness.
ReplyDeleteOther than present plod approval, there is absolutely nothing for the Nation to gain by rejecting Winsor's main proposals, Julia.
I though it was the Mail that was the target of your ire? Am I guilty of Thought Crime?
ReplyDelete...and they they were, Melv and that other creature - MEDS time you two...off you go.
ReplyDeleteThe Winsor Report and any implementation will have to consider the 'issues around' fairness mentioned by a couple of other posters before anything occurs. I cannot understand Winsor's rationale - other than to suspect he is under instructions from Cameroon and Clarke to finish what they failed with the Sheehey baloney back in the early 90's.
You cannot have a police force stuffed with graduate fast entry clones just as much as you cannot leave front line and routine patrol to low paid uniformed guards.
I just hope that someone somewhere sees sense.
The Polcie do need a kick up the arse but Winsor and these new civil 'commissioners' are not the answer.
I'd love to see a full list of all the candidates for these commissioner roles - most of them seem to be barking mad, political opportunists or members of the political class after an easy £100K per year.
Officers who perform 'Riot' duty have to be pretty fit. The standard is or was a timed run in full kit, boots,nato helmet, gloves, body armour, leg and arm guards, long stick and shield. Cap'n Haddock is right about the entrance tests.
ReplyDeleteThe most annoying thing is that the reason the Police have lost public confidence is because they have been doing what the various Govts have been forcing them to do. the previous blog about the drowning in the lake is a good example of this
Officers who perform 'Riot' duty have to be pretty fit. The standard is or was a timed run in full kit, boots,nato helmet, gloves, body armour, leg and arm guards, long stick and shield. Cap'n Haddock is right about the entrance tests.
ReplyDeleteThe most annoying thing is that the reason the Police have lost public confidence is because they have been doing what the various Govts have been forcing them to do. the previous blog about the drowning in the lake is a good example of this
@ Ranter
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your customary kind words.
The requirements of sane members of the public must seem very strange to you and that like-minded inmate, PC Lightyear.
Nevertheless I feel a duty to express gratitude for any unconscious effort to bring radical police reforms ever closer. May you both be blessed with undeserved longevity in order that crude plod comments can continue to blight plod aspirations, indefinitely.
Melvin
ReplyDeleteAlthough I visit Insp Gadget's blog I no longer comment. Principally because of loons like Pc Lightyear who is, if real, an annoying and irritating twonk - that much we can agree on.
Insp Gadget publishes interesting and generally spot on posts about the madness of modern Policing but even Winsor has him nonplussed - as for the regular commenters, well, they are a small and not particularly representative group. One can tell the genuine comments from the hysterical over-loyal groupies.
If the state really cared about the future of British Policing then it is people like Inspector Gadget who should be consulted and not the corrupt likes of Sir Ian Blair, Sir Paul Stephenson, Sir John Stevens, Andy Hayman, Sue Akers, Brian Paddick, 'Fat Bob' Quick, Yates of the Yard, Old Man Fahy and the rest of the proven to be corrupt ACPO clones that have assisted the Conservative Government of John Major and the Nu-LAbour Blair/Brown disaster versions bring a once great institution to it's knees along with the NHS and the teaching profession let alone everything else in British Society.
"… which proposed ending the "job for life" culture of the police and opening the way for new recruits with business backgrounds to join senior ranks directly."
ReplyDeleteI was employed in a privatised public sector organisation that went through this kind of culture change. We all hoped these new recruits would inject new ideas and vitality, but (with a couple of honourable exceptions) they ended up being fired or moved sideways into non-jobs. The main problem was that they just didn't have a clue about the nature of the business, because they hadn't served their apprenticeship in the trenches with the lower ranks. When a candidate's CV had the words "private sector experience", the "wow factor" from the words "private sector" far outweighed the actual value of that experience.
"Overall, the public wants to support the police but is frequently perplexed by what the service is doing; all too often disappointed with police activity (or the lack of it); concerned at the apparent gap that is growing between them and their police; and hungry for change."
As a mere member of the public, I agree wholeheartedly with this; however, the solution is unlikely to be hiring and firing. I do indeed wonder how the police manage to waste so much of their time, when the numbers on patrol are so few; but I suspect the short answer is that that's what we've told them to do. The endless initiatives from Whitehall and from elected politicians represent a huge opportunity cost at the very least - that is, when they are not actually preventing the police from doing their job. David Copperfield had a short article in last week's Sunday Times (behind a paywall, unfortunately) contrasting the efficiency of Canadian policing with our own simultaneously bloated and hamstrung service.
It is a real shame that we had a Winsor Report, and not a Copperfield Report. Theresa May may not understand what's going on, but Sir Humphrey at the Home Office certainly does. They appointed Winsor because they knew he would give them the answers they wanted.
"Promotion should come from within the ranks..."
ReplyDeleteSpot on! Especially for operational posts.
"I'd settle for 'vaguely compos mentis'"
Me too! Sadly, I suspect we'll both be disappointed.
"I stand to be corrected .. but weren't the educational entry standards lowered in the first place, so as to permit the recruitment & entry of persons from certain demographics.."
Quite! Just as the fitness requirements were lowered to get a nice diverse balance, as anon points out.
And we all see how well that worked out, eh?
"However I do not understand your reasons for objection to the Windsor report."
Well, there are many.
There's the reliance on a self-selected sample for his claim that fitness needs to be addressed, which would embarrass a primary school student.
There's the fact that - as I pointed out - direct entry for graduates has been an utter disaster in the teaching profession, so why assume it'd work here?
And there's the changes to the 'job for life' culture which sounds good, but rarely works in practice. And Joseph K shows why.
Do the police need a new broom to come in and sweep clean? Yes. But not this one.
""
ReplyDelete"The installation of an embarrassing excess of lazy, stupid and corrupt employees; most of whom are proving very difficult to winkle, is a major weakness."
The vast majority of those are in the top ranks. You'll never meet them on the street.
"I though it was the Mail that was the target of your ire?"
Sooner or later, Ciaran, everyone's the target or my ire...
"...other than to suspect he is under instructions from Cameroon and Clarke to finish what they failed with the Sheehey baloney back in the early 90's."
I've seen that referenced a lot. Must read up on it.
"The most annoying thing is that the reason the Police have lost public confidence is because they have been doing what the various Govts have been forcing them to do..."
Yup, a bit of backbone and pushing back by your top brass would have halted the slide. But we are where we are now.
"I was employed in a privatised public sector organisation that went through this kind of culture change. We all hoped these new recruits would inject new ideas and vitality, but (with a couple of honourable exceptions) they ended up being fired or moved sideways into non-jobs. "
ReplyDeleteSomething which would simply not be tolerated in the private sector...