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Chief Constable, Chair of the Police Authority, guests,
ladies and gentlemen welcome to Kent Police
Federation's Open Meeting at the Hilton Hotel.
Let me be begin my introducing the platform to you
Since last year a number of our colleagues have fallen; two have been murdered - PC Ricky Gray from West Mercia and PC Jon Henry from Bedfordshire. Both these officers paid the ultimate sacrifice whilst displaying the type of bravery that policing is renowned for. And of course our own Katie Mitchell and Jhlmin Bains - Katie was tragically taken from us in a motorcycle crash on her way to work; Jhlmin eventually lost her brave fight against cancer. Our thoughts are with their families, friends and colleagues.
I would ask you stand for a time and silently remember all our fallen colleagues.
I know you are here tonight because one thing is uppermost in your minds - pay. My speech has been written, rewritten and rewritten again over the last two days and I would beg your indulgence as I intend to deal with local matters first. Rest assured - we will get to the fireworks that are pay shortly.
Chief Constable, it simply wouldn't be an open meeting if I didn't mention PCSOs. Fortunately or unfortunately events on pay have shortened what I intended to say on the subject of PCSOs. I shall however say this. We were hugely disappointed when, out of the £500k allocated to Kent for neighbourhood policing, not one penny was spent on extra police officers.
I understand that ACPO are doing another review regarding the role profile and powers. We have warned of mission creep time and again, and we know it is alive and well in Kent. When I see ACPO writing things such as PCSO response and PCSO investigation I really wonder where this will all end. Let me be clear once again. The role of the PCSO is confused. The public are confused. We are confused. The Home Secretary has added to this confusion by announcing standard powers and discretionary powers in an attempt to bring some clarity.
CC We will not stand by and surrender the office of constable to so called well meaning eyes and ears of neighbourhood policing.
I became your Chairman five years ago and since then I have delivered 4 open meeting speeches that have covered numerous issues but one theme has been a constant - quality of service. Let me take a few moments to remind you of some of the content:
I have spoken of policing being a public service not a business; a dwindling uniformed presence on the streets, our need to deal with quality of life issues and the importance of local bobbies known to local communities, in essence neighbourhood policing. We welcomed the introduction of NHP but warned that it needed to be embedded into everyday policing. I have talked about the performance culture that has resulted in only doing what gets measured; our worship of the performance god; our lack of independence from interfering politicians and how the target driven performance culture has choked the common sense and discretion out of policing.
I felt as if nobody was listening. I felt like a voice in the wilderness. BUT we were confident in what we were saying. Why? Because it was coming from you - our members - those charged with delivering the complicated public service of policing.
Sir, earlier this year Mr Barker-McCardle launched a project. This has now become Project Blueprint - a project to engage with the Force, establish a vision - establish what we stand for, return the focus of our efforts to a quality of service. Re-create a team mentality - The Blue Team. He has spoken with great passion and commitment. An outside consultant was employed and some of you will have taken part in the focus groups held around the force.
Sir, we welcome this work - it is work that is long overdue.
Right from the start before any engagement with officers and staff, I highlighted a number of issues that would need addressing if the culture of the organisation was to change.
- A clear policing vision for Kent Police - a vision expressed in the language of frontline cops; easy to understand and not expressed in management speak and gobbledegook. A vision to inspire.
- A dismantling of the silo culture that has developed over the last 14 years of intelligence led policing - a culture that has, whether we like it or not, encouraged officers to focus on their narrow part of policing; a culture that has undermined the omni-competent police officer.
- An end to the all-pervading performance culture that has focused policing's attention on easy tick box results at the expense of quality. A return to allowing officers to exercise proper discretion. An end to the process of criminalising people just to get a brought to justice figure for that is a misuse of our power and a disgrace.
- A top down recognition that policing is not a business but a public service and the first emergency service. When I read phrases such as: Kent Police is committed to ensuring a professionally delivered customer experience I wonder who do we think we are - McDonalds, Burger King or perhaps Disneyland? I wonder what reception we would get if we took this wannabee business "Kent Police PLC" into the Dragons' Den.
- A commitment to improve public satisfaction if necessary at the expense of our tick box performance status.
- Leadership that inspires as opposed to dictates.
It is no surprise to us that early indications from the focus groups support what we have been saying for years and other studies are also corroborating this.
At the recent Big Conversation III (a meeting of the senior managers within the force) a number of questions were asked and those present voted anonymously -
78% stated our policing model is not clearly defined
65% stated that neighbourhood policing is not clearly understood
57% stated that our current intelligence model is not fit for purpose
94% stated there are too many targets
Sir, you are being given very clear messages from all levels within Kent Police.
BUT - all this soul searching will be for nought if the tick box performance culture is allowed to continue unabated. If we are serious about delivering quality neighbourhood policing then something has got to give. Sir you, along with your ACPO colleagues up and down the country, are going to have to be radical. It is time to demonstrate some real leadership from within the police service and stop feeding the performance god at the Home Office.
Me thinks you wouldn't be alone - some notable Chief Constables have undergone something of a road to Damascus conversion.
Chief Constable Bob Quick, that well known moderniser and advocate of the mixed economy of policing, has been quoted in the Evening Standard.
- Bob Quick, has told this paper that his force's rating as the best performing in the country is misleading because it is based on achieving Government targets to increase "the number of offenders brought to justice" by focusing operations on soft targets. "We are," he said, "not doing as well as it seems."
In particular, he suggests - as many people have suspected - that police are issuing far more cautions to shoplifters and cannabis users, and fixed penalty notices for disorderly behaviour, rather than engaging with serious crimes he said. . "We are at risk of claiming statistical success when real operational issues remain to be addressed,"
Does this all sound familiar?
Mr Peter Neyroud (Chief Executive of the NPIA) has been quoted in The Times following a recent lecture
Over the past five years police had focused on increasing the numbers of offences brought to justice.
"There has been, in the minds of many professionals, me included, a neglect of the serious…..because detecting a stolen milk bottle counts the same as detecting a murder…."
It might take some time but they all come round to our way of thinking in the end.
If we are serious about providing a quality service to the people of Kent then we need to learn the art of saying NO.
- NO to increasing responsibilities without the proper resources.
- NO to dancing to the latest political tune.
- NO to tick box performance.
Sir, I am sure you will be concerned about the findings that are starting to emerge from Blueprint. BUT take comfort in this - at least officers of all ranks feel confident to share their frustrations. It will be an absolute travesty if we fail to listen to the issues and fail to do something about it. Let us be the blue team; let us be the most successful force in the country. But let that be for the right reasons and not just for satisfying very dubious targets.
I am not accustomed to quoting Americans I much prefer something from Churchill, but I came across this one from an American Philip Crosby who said,
"Quality is the result of a carefully constructed cultural environment. It has to be the fabric of the organization, not part of the fabric".
Let our success be based on real value, real quality.
Now to the issue of pay.
Many if not all of you will have seen or heard about yesterday's Daily Telegraph article and the copy of the Home Secretary's letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. You will know in that letter she has agreed to the Arbitration's award of 2.5% but is only going to backdate it until 1st December and not 1st September, effectively reducing the value of our pay rise to 1.9% to keep in line with Government pay policy.
I know that you are disgusted and angry about this - so am I. But we must ensure that we direct our anger at the right person. We must not fall into the trap of "shooting the messenger" - namely the Police Federation. We are bound by a process and we have followed that process. We laid our claim, we made our case, we argued our position. We did so in an open and honourable manner. Others have not done so.
But the most disgraceful part of the Home Secretary's letter is not her decision to back date the award a mere 6 days. Let me explain. Let me be clear, this is not just about pay but about her absolute lack of honour throughout the negotiation process.
Back in the early summer negotiations in the PNB broke down because the Official Side's offer of 2.325% was a majority offer - the Home Office wanted to stage it. This would have made the rise worth 1.85% in real terms - spookily enough in line with the Government pay policy. We have ended up at Arbitration and the Home Secretary's decision is a rise of 1.9% - still in line with that policy.
What was the point of many months of negotiation when the result was already pre-ordained - that is why I say the Home Secretary has acted dishonourably? These negotiations have been conducted in complete and utter bad faith.
The Home Secretary in her letter states that in moving away from our old index the Home Office will have the moral high ground. Home Secretary let be absolutely clear - dishonourable people never occupy the moral high ground - given the state of this administration they wouldn't even know where to look for it. Far from being on the moral high ground you have shown yourself to be a moral bankrupt.
It is obvious that all she cares about is whether any pay settlement is consistent with affordability and Government pay policy. She makes no mention of our unique status within society - our inability to take any form of industrial action and the many restrictions placed upon our private lives. She scandalously makes no mention of the sacrifices made by police officers and the bravery displayed on a daily basis - no but she, along with other politicians, is more than content to bask in the reflected glory of brave officers and our achievements in the fight against crime and terrorism. The Home Secretary has shown utter contempt for both policing and police officers and we won't stand for it.
She obviously views our inability to take industrial action as a weakness to be exploited rather than a strength that in a supposedly fair society should be rewarded. The Home Secretary has lost what little trust was left. How can we now work with someone who has shown herself to be completely untrustworthy and has treated us with such contempt?
We now know that she has today ratified the 2.5% award backdating it to 1st December claiming it will save £40m to invest in policing services to the public. Just when you think she can't stoop any lower she announces that money taken from our pay, money that is rightfully ours is going to be used to pay for policing - probably in the guise of more ruddy PCSOs.
We now know that police officers in Scotland have been given the full award backdated to 1st September. If this is some form of scurrilous attempt to divide and conquer police officers in the UK then this government has grossly underestimated the family ethic of policing, the invisible bonds that tie us in a common purpose.
Ladies and gentlemen we must tread carefully. Let me remind you that there is a criminal offence of causing disaffection with police officers.
I say Jacqui Smith MP CRO has got a nice ring to it! Who fancies the arrest?
Jan I know there are things in the pipeline and I know you will take back the feelings of our officers. They feel betrayed. They feel cheated and yes they are bloody angry and yes they are up for a fight.
CC I now ask you to address the meeting
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