In response to a Parliamentary question yesterday, the Police minister, Tony McNulty seems to have confirmed what everyone suspects. The Police spend a lot of time doing non-policing type stuff. Apparently, during 2005-06 the Police spent, on average, just 14% of their time on patrol.
In McNulty's defence, they did also spend 63% of their time on "frontline activities" which - including patrol - also accounts for "arrests, dealing with incidents, gathering intelligence, responding to 999 calls, carrying out searches, dealing with informants, and interviewing suspects, victims and witnesses."
What McNulty didn't say in his answer was exactly what the other 37% of Police officers time was spent doing. I think it can probably be summed up with just four letters, PACE*.
* that's form filling for those who don't know.
4 comments:
Think maybe the form filling is in the 63%?
37% of time blagging lies to the press, smashing up bars in police rugby teams, stitching up black officers ... oh and good stuff like school visits, community committees, getting gallantry awards, buying the Friday cream cakes for the station at ASDA-Wallmart (witnessed last Friday: at approximately 6:03pm I was patrolling the aisles at said superstore, Hulme High Street, when my eyes fell on two constables with the largest arm full of cream buns every assembled ...)
Just out of interest can you provide for comparison the equivalent statistics for the last year of John Major's reign?
You have got it in one Dizz.
A friend of mine in the police reported that even bobbies not on ordinary street patrol are being encourage to wear a uniform instead of a suit to give the appearance of more bobbies on the beat?
Anon, good idea: visibility, keep riff-raff on the move. Don't Bobbies get free underground travel while in uniform? It’s like cameras and cardboard cut-out police cars*.
* Roading contractors in New Zealand placed cut-outs of vehicle similar (not identical) to police cars near where they worked on the roads. Drivers slowed down for a change. The NZ constabulary thought it such a cracker idea they endorsed it and copied it.
Thus the size of the police force increased without increasing the budget. maybe fill the house of commons with cut outs, esp in the back benches: saving some money!
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