The Editor
The Times
1 Pennington Street
London E98 1TA

9th February 2007

RE: If the burglar has gone, the police won't come. OK?

Dear Editor

Mr Roycroft-Davis is absolutely right to be outraged at the disgraceful state of affairs that police officers are only sent to burglaries if the offender is still there. Alas, after 23 years as a police officer I am not surprised.

Burglary is a wicked crime that violates the victim and completely destroys their feeling of safety in the one place where it is of absolute importance - their home. Whether the burglary is opportunistic or not, the victim is often left with the feeling of having been subjected to some form of criminal surveillance. A proportion of victims never regain a sense of safety in their own home. This can be particularly so when the victim is elderly and the burglary has been committed by someone posing as an official from the water board or the gas company. To then not send a police officer merely adds to that lack of safety and sends the unintentional message that the police do not care about the crime or the victim.

As the article asks, where are the 143, 271police officers when your home has been trashed? The sad reality is that policing has become too focused on targets, targets set by politicians, targets that produce figures used solely by the same politicians to pat themselves on the back, targets that produce figures only they believe. This all pervading performance culture has focused the police's attention too keenly on those matters that get measured. The consequence is more focus on obtaining criminal cautions for playground scuffles (as that provides a tick in the box as a positive disposal for the brought to justice figures) than reassuring the victims of burglary that doesn't provide a performance tick for anything. The performance culture is choking the common sense out of policing.

Frontline officers are equally frustrated by this. They are sick to death of being the frontline apologists for others' actions or lack of action. They want to do a professional job and be there for the public but find themselves constantly diverted to the latest performance driven, politically motivated hobby horse.

Things will only get worse as budget cuts bite and police officer numbers fall - they are already falling in some forces. I am not suggesting that policing be given a blank cheque, and there needs to be a level of accountability over how the money is spent. That said there needs to be a fundamental debate - Is policing a business or a public service? I believe it is a public service, the first public service for without proper law and order nothing else can flourish. If we continue to run policing as a business then we will continue to withdraw from those activities that don't provide the politicians with hard statistics. The circumstances described in the article will continue not to be a surprise.

Consequently as public support dwindles we will undermine the style of policing that we have so successfully exported to many other countries, namely policing by consent.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Pointon
Chairman
Kent Police Federation

Kent Police Federation is the staff association representing police officers from the rank of constable up to and including chief inspector.