Police ‘future’ plans blasted (From Gazette & Herald)

It seems to me that the Winsor report has been published in line with a brief from the Home Office. It will kill off any morale the police had and discourage people from joining.Direct entry to Inspector and Superintendent?-ridi
culous without the experience enabling you to cope with the responsibilities. Imagine a direct entry Superintendent on day one having to command a firearms incident with no police experience-he would not have a clue and it could be disastrous.Winsor did a rubbish job with trains and he has done it again here-he has no idea about policing . The Police Federation are holding a ballot re strike action but legally the Police cannot strike without a legislation change. I do sympathise with them as they are being "screwed" by a stupid, arrogant and incompetent Home Secretary.The politicization of the Police is just round the corner and Police Commissioners will further aid this. I'm sure this is not what the public wants.

The pay structures that Winsor is trying to dismantle aren't perfect but at least cops know how much will be in their wage packet, no matter when they are required to work or what role they take on. At the moment officers move into different roles because they want to do them, not because they pay more. Some pay elements already cut by Winsor, the rest frozen (just like the rest of the public sector), increments frozen, increased pension contributions, - officers won't be able to afford the pay cut to move into some roles now but the Chief Constable can just post them anyway. And all with a whole load of additional bureaucracy which the public will be footing the bill for.

Some of Widsor's proposals have clearly given the Federation an already militant organisation an open invitation to make trouble for the government and I'm surprised at Mrs May taking them on board. The idea for fast tracking and entry level promotion is a non-starter, it's clear to me that the lower ranks have little time or respect for anyone above the rank of Inspector as it is and there is no substitute for experience in such a job.


Regarding pay the idea of reducing a constable's starting wage to 19k is wrong, it is too low and will not accept better candidates which some forces including ours sorely need.

Some time ago a senior member of Complaints and discipline told me "We consider all police officers to be capable of working without supervision and making management decisions". That being the case my view is pay needs to be simplified and brought into line with "magagement" conditions. So put all officers on a salary slightly above current basic pay levels at simple increments changing by rank only, with basic minimum hours and a clause stating "additional hours as neccesary". This removes all "overtime" payments and "allowances", saves masses of bureaucracy and officers know how much money to expect each month in their wages.

The waffle by Mark Botham about privatisation is just silly left wing scaremongering and should be treated with the contempt it deserves, I'd accept they don't want Commissioners accountable to the public in charge of them, but the likes of Botham and Acpo have rather brought this fate their organisations by doing their upmost to ensure police officers are not accountable in the past.

Very bitter Pete.. What ever happened to bemused on here?

ian923 wrote:
It seems to me that the Winsor report has been published in line with a brief from the Home Office. It will kill off any morale the police had and discourage people from joining.Direct entry to Inspector and Superintendent?-ridi

culous without the experience enabling you to cope with the responsibilities. Imagine a direct entry Superintendent on day one having to command a firearms incident with no police experience-he would not have a clue and it could be disastrous.Winsor did a rubbish job with trains and he has done it again here-he has no idea about policing . The Police Federation are holding a ballot re strike action but legally the Police cannot strike without a legislation change. I do sympathise with them as they are being "screwed" by a stupid, arrogant and incompetent Home Secretary.The politicization of the Police is just round the corner and Police Commissioners will further aid this. I'm sure this is not what the public wants.

Direct Entry at higher levels is exactly part of what is needed within the Police Service an has been for years.

Direct entry staff would still have to go through a probationary process like any other officer. No other organisation employing as many staff as the police is run by people that started at the bottom and have never worked anywhere else. Managing an organisation of 3000 employees is a big and complicated task. And we have a fool like Maxwell running NYP!

What makes you think 5 years as a PC or Sergeant would train a Super to be able to an incident commander? Take it from me, nothing does, they go on a course and hopefully they have a natural aptitude for crisis management.

It would be far better to train senior management that already have the necessary management and life skills to understand the law and responsibilities of the police than to try and train an officer that just wants to eran a few more quid to have skills they don't naturally have.

This is borne out by some of the best Specials out there that have a jobs in private firms with significant responsibilities during the day and give up their time to police during the evenings and weekends.

I also don't wnat to see a privatisation of the police to any extant, it is one institution that must stay public in it's entirety. We are Policed by consent in this country and that can be the ONLY way it can be.

But your a fool if you think the Police are not already politicised at higher levels, better that it is formalised and taken out from the shadows where "people" like Jane Kenyon from NYPA play politics with NYP and hardly anyone knows she is doing it.

Ignore what the Fed spouts in this county, cronyism is rife in within their ranks what they say cannot be guaranteed to be the opinion of the rank and file.

@Biologic-You sound like a failed ex-cop to me.

ian923 wrote:
@Biologic-You sound like a failed ex-cop to me.

Ahh, thats where you would be wrong. And this isn't twitter you do realise that don't you.....