Will there be conflict between the Crown Prosecution Service and elected PCC’s

I have been giving much thought to how an elected Police & Crime Commissioner will work with the CPS.  Of course operational matters are with the Chief Constable, but the way the police work and the systems they use will be affected and the way the CPS works with the Police will by logic be affected as well.

I have lawyer friends and police friends, lawyers complain at the low level of educational attainment of some police and the quality of their paper work, Police friends and various Police blogs bear witness to the Police constables poor opinion of the CPS and the lawyers employed.

Any conflict up and till now has either been hidden or fudged, but when you get an elected PCC I think his or her reputation will stand on the performance of the Police and the number of successful prosecutions.  Second best will not suffice, so I think there will be real tensions in the relationship.  Also the fact that the PCC has an elected mandate will strengthen his/her hand to act.

How will a successful PCC cope with these tensions and manage any crisis, well I believe that systems will reduce friction and drive up quality, so breaking down inefficient systems and re-working them to cut failure will play an important part of minimising tension.  But personal relationships based on trust and even handedness will be the back bone of dealing with disputes and problems.

If the PCC is to be successful, then they have to be aware of these problems from the start and plan how to deal with them, this is ultimately good management and something I am aware of and very willing to confront  

Sussex Police Community Support Officers (PCSO's) do not work after midnight, why?

PCSO uniform

 PCSO’s in Sussex are prevented as a matter of policy of working after midnight, when I have enquired why this was the case, the reason given was that it was Sussex Police’s policy and this was due to budgetary issues. 
 PCSO’s earn just under £20,000, Sussex has approximately 390 PCSO’s and their basic salary is within SPA 7 grade (£18,093 to £19,770). They do not have the power of arrest; PCSO’s are not replacements for Full Constables but are the eyes and ears for the Full Constables and do prevent crime.   I believe that PCSO’s have an important role and the role gives a career path to becoming Full Constables.  I also believe that they should be allowed to work after midnight, and it’s ridiculous that they are prevented from doing so. 


  If I was elected as PCC I would insist on this change. It would be very useful operationally  for them to be available on Friday & Saturday nights to allow them to police the Night Time Economy and work up to 0300hrs, but why have any restrictions at all?  If you remember back to the riots in August 2011, manpower was stretched to the limit, so I would support lifting all restrictions on PCSO working.    

Special Constable Advertising

But in addition there are also Special Constables, Specials are a valuable community resource and are a useful tool to re-enforce Full Constables and PCSO’s.  There should and if elected there will be a concerted effort to reach out to communities and recruit many more volunteers to be Sussex Specials.  This is and would be the Big Society in operation  

Police levy for the Night Time economy?

Familiar Scene

Currently the government are consulting regarding introducing a night time levy for Policing in areas where there is a high volume of alcohol related trouble. This would involve business’s that sold alcohol being levied money to pay for the additional Policing required in their area. In a recent Survey I conducted on my blog Anti-Social behaviour came top with alcohol related crime coming an equal second.

I think as always there are issues with the way the draft legislation is currently drafted, the civil service does need the grafting of the common sense gene, but leaving this aside, I do think there are merits to having a night levy and shifting the burden of paying for Policing from the Tax payer to the user.

The issue though for Sussex is the lack of Unitary Councils, Brighton would be an obvious case for introduction, but where there are District, Borough and County government structures you have issues of Rural and Urban mix, the current draft of the legislation says that it has to be District or Borough wide, this would penalise Rural Pubs when you want to keep them going as they are useful social hubs for communities.

I believe there is scope to introduce them to urban centres based on parish borders, but until the civil service looks at this with common sense then it will be an experiment without much practical value.  But any elected PCC should be working with government to craft legislation that works for the Resident, Customer and Proprietor.

Systems Thinking-how it could help reform Policing in Sussex

Taiichi Ohno WorkplaceManagement

In my business and my political career I have used Systems thinking as a way of managing and incentivising  staff, The world can thank a pioneering Japanese man for systems thinking.  Taiichi Ohno, former executive vice president of the Toyota Motor Company, pioneered ideas that later became coined as Lean by American's.

It all came about because levels of demand for cars in the post war economy of Japan were low and over production in the factories had to be avoided.

Having visited and seen supermarkets in the USA, Taiichi Ohno recognised the scheduling of work should not be driven by sales or production targets but by actual sales.Toyota still uses Lean to this day – some 50 years after Mr Ohno started the revolution

What is Systems thinking and what relevance is there to modern day Policing?

Well rather than being some over complicated academic theory it’s based on common sense, it empowers staff and creates a culture of continuous improvement. 

The concept of unnecessary and avoidable process’s being built into jobs and then taken for granted was noticed by motion efficiency expert  and former bricklayer Frank Gilbreth who saw that masons bent over to pick up bricks from the ground.  The bricklayer was therefore lowering and raising his entire upper body to pick up 2.3kg brick, and inefficiency had been built into the job through long practice.

To any Police Officer reading this blog will immediately realise why Systems Thinking can help the Police, the same habit of building in efficeny into their work practices have plagued the Police for years.

Frank Gilbreth introduced a non-stooping scaffold which delivered the bricks at waist level and allowed masons to work about three times as quickly and with less effort.

Small commonsense changes suggested from the grassroots at the sharp-end improves effiency and increases staff morale

For example, I remember when at the Council we were discussing a target, should we target to answer our phone calls within 5 rings or 6 rings, (this was the type of Top down Micro management we had to implement under the last government). 

 Systems’ thinking approaches the question from a different angle, rather than ask how many phone rings you should have, it asks the question why are we having so many telephone calls in the first place?

Systems Thinkingin Public Sector
John Seddon

 When an organisation does not do something properly it generates negative demand, People phone up to complain about something that has not been done, Systems Thinking deals with the negative demand by leaning systems to be simpler, so to get it right first time.  Nobody rings up their council to say things have gone right, they just expect it to be so. 

large organisations over the years have built up over complicated process’s or moved manual process’s on to Computers without any thought of reform, this sometimes involves up to 30 different actions from start to finish to complete one function or outcome, if you study what needs to be done from start to finish and reduce the number of actions you get a more efficient and workable process (Not complicated), yet over decades organisations, many in the Public Sector have done this. Leaving us inefficient top down structures.

Control & Command
 John Seddon

How do you “get buy-in” from staff and middle management, well you walk the floor and talk to them, most staff at the sharp end know what needs to be done, but they are compelled in working a certain way by the Control and Command management style.  Once you start to trust your grassroots staff to make decision and redesign process your efficiency and staff morale rises and you have a much more dynamic organisation,

This would be one of the changes I would implement to Sussex Policing if I am given the chance.

If you want to know more about systems thinking there are several links to follow :-  Wikepdia Systems Thinking   &  John Seddon (Advocate & Consultant) 

The Guardians 10 questions for potential police and crime commissioners - Paul Dendle's Answers

 This is an article in the Guardian link  I have answered the questions and my answers are in blue


Directly-elected PCCs are intended to hold the police to account. As candidates emerge, here are some questions for them

Guardian photo

Before long, selection processes will begin in earnest and political parties will choose their candidates for the elected positions of police and crime commissioners (PCCs). As the names of people putting themselves forward begin to emerge, here are a few questions that any candidate worth their salt should be able to answer:

1.This year, a number of police authorities have taken a one-off grant from the government in order to reduce their precept and the impact of the cuts. There is no guarantee that this money will continue which means that next year, the new PCCs may have to make even bigger cuts or seek higher precepts. If you had been elected last year, what would you have done and why? Would you have chosen to take the one-off grant or not?

Yes I would have taken the grant and yes I would take the grant in future years if offered, the grant is conditional on holding any increase to less than 2.5%, I don’t see any issue in achieving this.

2.The new Act gives PCCs the power to "commission policing services from the chief constable (or other Providers)". How do you envisage using this power and what risks do you foresee? 

I think you have to consider using third party providers of services, but the key to making this work is in the procurement and contract management, Benchmarking and KPI’s (key performance Indicators) must be included in any tender document and if providers didn’t  achieve the KPI’s then provision must be made in any tender/contract to deal with this.

3.How do you plan to forge a constructive relationship with the chief constable, and what will you be doing to avoid or handle conflicting views and priorities? 

Any relationship should be based on mutual respect, The Chief Constable has a tough job to do as well as the PCC, any disagreements can be handled behind closed doors  and  the wise Chief Constable can use the PCC to take some of the political pressure off himself so he can operate more effectively

4.On the basis that limited police resources need to be deployed in proportion to where and when there is greatest risk of harm to members of the public, as PCC what action will you take to ensure your police force is doing this optimally?

Operationally this is the Chief Constable’s job, but within the Policing Plan there will be priorities which the PCC will direct the CC to concentrate on.  The key though is to create the conditions for the CC to do this most effectively, The Budget discussions will be a key plank of achieving this

5. Given the focus on the relationship between the police and the news media, what would you hope to achieve in your first 100 days of office in this respect?  

Expectations will be high for immediate change, in the first 100 days there will be little noticeable change in what is happening on the ground, 

6. How much do you worry that a large proportion of police resources spent on devising partnership protocols, emergency plans and interagency strategies etc are broadly equivalent to all the effort that went into Year 2000 compatibility?

A root and branch review of all interagency Strategies, Partnerships and Emergency plans will be one of the first things I would do, but it is already clear to me that there are considerable savings to be made in consolidating the LSP’s  (Local Strategic Partnerships) into more manageable groupings as well as including issues like rough sleepers and as well as this, I would give LSP's a four year term with annual reviews rather than extending on a year by year basis

7. It would seem that the fear of crime continues to rise despite the reductions in actual crime. What electoral promises will you make regarding this worrying trend?  

The fear of crime rises because there is a disconnect between local Communalities and their Police, if this is re-established in a real way then fear of Crime will subside.

8. As PCC you will be elected by the people of your area. However the police often work in other force areas (as happened with the riots last year) and maintain resources to tackle national (often organised) crime. What tensions do you foresee there and how will you resolve them?

Mutual Aid is always an important part of Policing, the balance in the goodwill account between forces has to always be kept in a relative equilibrium, if this starts to break down then there has to be a robust exchange of views behind closed doors.

9. Is policing a complex business or a complicated one?

It’s both, its complex in the many different problems and different groups within society, a sophisticated local strategy can deal with this, complications are the problems that arise, these can be minimised by making Policing more receptive and by empowering Constables to show discretion and common sense where this is required.

10. Police authorities have been criticised for being too invisible. How will you visibly connect with all the diverse communities of your area and bring democratic accountability to life?

Firstly the Police Forces should reflect the makeup of the societies that they police, In Sussex the issue is more about East European immigration and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)than BME’s so LGBT recruits and Russian, Polish and Lithuanian speakers should be encouraged to join.  But Sir Robert Peel’s principles of Policing number nine states “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”  But before you get to that ideal position you have to reduce crime and disorder.

A Policing Vision for the future

The first thing I want to say is that I support and value our police forces. I believefor too long they have been victims of political interference and political correctness and they have not been allowed to get on with the job. The worst thing that ever happened in policing was the advent of the Panda car in the 1960’s; the Police became cocooned in their cars and lost touch with the public, meaningful Communication ceased.

The Police have to engage again with our communities, and I don’t mean the phony type of Public relations engagement which is just a veneer, I mean real visible engagement, the hard grind of pounding the beat and  engaging with ordinary members of the public and picking up intelligence and trends. 

Having real conversations with Parish, District and Borough Councillors, not just the obligatory visit every few months to a scrutiny meeting at the local council.  The Local Strategic Partnerships are worthwhile and valued, but they need to be re-focussed, they should be outcome based and should be consolidated into more cohesive areas grouping 3 or 4 District Councils together which would save money.  Also rather than having to bid for money one year at a time they should be given a 4 year contract with annual reviews, this 4 year contract would last for the period of the Police Crime Commissioners tenure.

 Our police forces are old legacy type organisations with plenty of baggage and working practices that need to be reformed,  procedures, and working practices have to be completely reviewed the accepted norms should be questioned.  Technology has to be a central plank to reform, linking the Police officer on the beat with handheld access to the network.

Top heavy self serving administrative structures feed themselves with continuing bureaucratic demands, high flying candidates play the careers game, they don’t want to rock the boat which undermines any type of change agenda.

The Police Commissioner role gives an opportunity for a candidate to institute real change, I believe any candidate should not think of a second term, they should concentrate on reforming  agenda for the full four years, the last thing the Commissioner should be doing is thinking how to be re-elected, they should concentrate on reform. Setting out a vision is the first step,

I believe we should make Policing the centre of our communities, if I quote Sir Robert Peel   “The police are the public and the public are the police”   In the age of localism this one quote encapsulates what should be happening.

Ordinary Police officers know what has to be done, they observe these grandiose hierarchies where talented officers fast track themselves up the career ladder passing the ordinary officer by , we should start by empowering the local officers, engage them in the change agenda and take on board their commonsense solutions to Policing

Policing - A vision from the past - Sir Robert Peel's Policing Principles

Sir Robert Peel

 I was recently reading a book on current Policing and mentioned in the book were the Principles of Policing as set out by Sir Robert Peel, I was struck by their relevance to Policing today and how these Principles could refocus our Police forces back to the Customer. I believe our modern Police forces have lost their way, they are top heavy with admin staff and are so concerned with managing the paperwork and all the demands of politicians that they have forgotten the real objectives, a re-balancing of the Policing priorities back to the Communities that they serve would be welcomed.  If elected this is what I would work for.

Sir Robert Peels Principles of policing

1.    The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

2.    The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.

3.    Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

4.    The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

5.    Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

6.    Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.

7.    Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

8.    Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.

9.    The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.