A study examined the extent and nature of information-sharing arrangements used by community safety partnerships in England and Wales to prevent and reduce violence and other types of crime.
Source: Nerissa Steel, Liz Ward and Alana Diamond, Information Sharing Aimed at Reducing Violent Crime: A survey of community safety partnerships, Research Report 45, Home Office
Date: 2010-Dec
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill was published (following consultation). The Bill provided for the creation of new directly elected police and crime commissioners from May 2012 with powers to set local policing priorities and hold chief constables to account; and proposed giving communities and local authorities greater control over alcohol licensing to tackle problem premises. It also removed a legal requirement on the government to appoint at least six scientists to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Source: Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, Home Office/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Impact assessment (1) | Impact assessment (2) | Impact assessment (3) | Equality impact assessment (1) | Equality impact assessment (2) | HOC research brief | Consultation responses | Hansard | Home Office press release | Conservative Party press release | Labour Party press release | APA press release | JUSTICE press release | LGA press release | UKDPC press release | Victim Support press release | Morning Star report | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners could give the public more opportunities to influence the way in which their local area was policed: but this would depend on the job definition set by government and on the individuals who took up the role. There were several aspects of the proposals that needed further attention – in particular, clarification of operational independence and responsibility, and the role and powers of police and crime panels.
Source: Policing: Police and Crime Commissioners, Second Report (Session 2010-11), HC 511, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | APA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined policing in rural areas.
Source: Rob Mawby and Richard Yarwood (eds.), Rural Policing and Policing the Rural: A Constable countryside?, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
An independent study of deaths in police custody between 1998 and 2009 said that there had been a 'substantial fall' in the number of deaths over the period. No police officer had been convicted of an offence in relation to any of the 333 deaths involved.
Source: Deaths in or Following Police Custody: An examination of the cases 1998/99-2008/09, Independent Police Complaints Commission
Links: Report | IPCC press release | Black Mental Health UK press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
A new textbook examined the legislative developments, policy changes, and practical strategies that had been put in place in recent years in an attempt to manage the level of crime in society.
Source: Karen Evans, Crime Prevention: A critical introduction, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined new guidance to police officers on how to respond to people with learning disabilities and mental illnesses.
Source: Robin Mackenzie and John Watts, 'Missing a beat: police responses to people with learning disabilities and mental health problems', Tizard Learning Disability Review, Volume 15 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report put forward proposals designed to make the new elected police commissioners more accountable to broader local democratic government and their local communities.
Source: Olivier Roth, A Fair Cop? Elected police commissioners, democracy and local accountability, New Local Government Network
Links: Report | NLGN press release
Date: 2010-Nov
The final report was published of an official review of bureaucracy in the police service in England in Wales. It estimated that one-third of the effort of police forces was either 'over-engineered', duplicated, or added no additional value.
Source: Jan Berry (Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing Advocate), Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing: Final Report, Home Office
Links: Report | Police Federation press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Oct
A new textbook combined an overview of the historical development of policing with a discussion of current debates and practice. It examined the relationship between the police and other criminal justice agencies; styles and approaches in practice; how to police political violence; diversity and the police; and police accountability.
Source: Peter Joyce, Policing: Development and contemporary practice, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government announced (in its 2010 Spending Review) that the Home Office budget would be cut by 25 per cent in real terms by 2014-15. Grants to police forces in England and Wales would be cut by 20 per cent. Spending by the Ministry of Justice would be cut by 20 per cent: plans to increase prison capacity to 96, 000 by 2014 would be scaled back.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | HMT press releases | Home Office press release | MOJ press release | APF press release | Law Society press release | Police Federation press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Children & Young People Now report | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)
Date: 2010-Oct
The police service inspectorate said that police authorities in England and Wales would have a crucial role to play in setting spending priorities over the following 18 months: but few authorities were well positioned or prepared to provide proper direction and to ensure value for money.
Source: Police Governance in Austerity: HMIC thematic report into the effectiveness of police governance, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
Links: Report | HMIC press release | APA press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Oct
An article said that reforms to stop-and-search procedures following the Lawrence inquiry (in 1999) had been experienced by the police as a form of 'collective trauma', giving rise to a series of defence mechanisms and allied forms of resistance that had distanced the new recording requirement from its intended purpose.
Source: Michael Shiner, 'Post-Lawrence policing in England and Wales: guilt, innocence and the defence of organizational ego', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 50 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
An article examined ethnic disparities in the use of stop-and-search powers by police force areas in England. There had been no improvement since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999: but this overall finding was heavily influenced by London and, to a lesser extent, Greater Manchester and the west midlands, which were out of step with most of the rest of the country.
Source: Joel Miller, 'Stop and search in England: a reformed tactic or business as usual?', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 50 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
An article examined how contractual injunctions (forcing the recipients, via the threat of criminal sanction on breach of the injunction, to engage in self-control of their behaviour) were used in practice by the police. It analyzed the different ways in which contractual injunctions were directed at certain social groups.
Source: Daniel McCarthy, 'Self-governance or professionalized paternalism?: the police, contractual injunctions and the differential management of deviant populations', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 50 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
An article examined empirical evidence that suggested that 'service-oriented' models of policing – based on visible patrol, community engagement, problem solving, and procedural fairness – were effective in increasing and maintaining public confidence in the police.
Source: Andy Myhill and Paul Quinton, 'Confidence, neighbourhood policing, and contact: drawing together the evidence', Policing, Volume 4 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Aug
The new coalition government announced that it would narrow the application of stop-and-search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, with immediate effect. (The move was made following confirmation of a decision by the European Court of Human Rights that the use of the powers amounted to a violation of the right to a private life.)
Source: Debate 8 July 2010, columns 540-548, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | Home Office press release | EHRC press release | Liberty press release | NIHRC press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
The government published a White Paper on proposals designed to make the police service in England and Wales more available and responsive, more accountable, more effective, and better value for money. It included plans for directly elected police and crime commissioners, who would have the power to hire and fire chief constables, and set each force s budget.
Source: Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people, Cm 7925, Home Office/TSO
Links: White Paper | Hansard | Home Office press release | LGA press release | PCS press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Conservative Party press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jul
A joint audit report said that the police in England and Wales could save up to £1 billion (12 per cent of central government funding) without reducing police availability.
Source: Sustaining Value for Money in the Police Service, Audit Commission/HM Inspectorate of Constabulary/Wales Audit Office
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
The police service inspectorate said that only 11 per cent of the police were visibly available to the public, despite year-on-year increases to budgets for the previous 40 years. With spending cuts in prospect, the availability of the police to the public would be even further reduced without a 'total redesign' of the service.
Source: Valuing the Police: Policing in an age of austerity, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
Links: Report | Home Office press release | Audit Commission press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jul
Local authorities said that the government's proposal to introduce directly elected individuals was not the best way to strengthen police accountability. A more efficient and cost-effective approach would be to reintegrate police accountability structures with local government.
Source: Improving Police Accountability: The LGA proposal, Local Government Association
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report examined the use of ethnic profiling in law enforcement.
Source: Kjartan Pall Sveinsson (ed.), Ethnic Profiling: The use of 'race' in UK law enforcement, Runnymede Trust
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly said that tackling organized crime in Northern Ireland required co-operation across government departments, agencies, and borders.
Source: Report on Combating Organised Crime, Seventeenth Report (Session 2009/2010), Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee/TSO
Links: Report | NIA press release
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced that the 'national policing pledge' for England and Wales – requiring officers to spend at least 80 per cent of their time visibly working on neighbourhood problems – would be scrapped. The police would no longer be required to answer emergency calls within 10 seconds, or get to an emergency within 15-20 minutes.
Source: Speech by Theresa May MP (Home Secretary), 29 June 2010
Links: Text of speech | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for a Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, designed to make the police service more accountable through directly elected 'police commissioners', create a dedicated Border Police Force, and introduce measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.
Source: Queen's Speech, 25 May 2010
Links: Text of Speech | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report | BBC report
Date: 2010-May
A report said that spending on the police in England and Wales grew by nearly 50 per cent in real terms between 1999 and 2009. In 2009 there were a record 142,151 police officers – 15,337 more than in 1998.
Source: Helen Mills, Arianna Silvestri and Roger Grimshaw, Police Expenditure, 1999-2009, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London
Links: Report | CCJS press release | People Management report | Telegraph report | Human Resources report
Date: 2010-May
A paper presented evidence on empirical connexions between crime and education. It concluded that improving education could yield significant social benefits and could be a key policy tool in the drive to reduce crime.
Source: Stephen Machin, Olivier Marie and Suncica Vujic, The Crime Reducing Effect of Education, DP979, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-May
A report by a committee of MPs criticized the Independent Police Complaints Commission for failing to inspire trust and confidence in those it had dealt with, and for handling cases in a 'distant and non-empathetic' manner.
Source: The Work of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Eleventh Report (Session 2009-10), HC 366, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that there was no clear evidence that the large increase in the number of people in prison had reduced crime, especially in terms of its long-term impact on offending behaviours.
Source: Olivier Marie, Reducing Crime: More Police, More Prisons or More Pay?, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
The government published a strategy for promoting community safety, based on strong partnerships at the neighbourhood level.
Source: Safe and Confident Neighbourhoods Strategy: Next steps in neighbourhood policing, Home Office
Links: Strategy | Evidence brief | Home Office press release | PM speech | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
A joint inspectorate report said that only one-third of a sample of police authorities inspected in England and Wales were setting effective long-term strategic plans for themselves or their force: as a result, they were not doing enough to identify and deliver policing priorities for their area.
Source: Learning Lessons: An overview of the first ten joint inspections of police authorities by HMIC and the Audit Commission, Audit Commission/HM Inspectorate of Constabulary/Wales Audit Office
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on police service strength in England and Wales. It said that it would provide sufficient funding in the years to 2012-13 to enable police authorities to maintain existing numbers of warranted police officers, police community support officers, and other staff exercising police powers.
Source: Police Service Strength: Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report, Fifth Special Report (Session 2009-10), HC 511, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2010-Mar
A business organization called for a major overhaul in the way police services were delivered, in order to maintain frontline services in the face of budget cuts. It said that more police forces should share back office functions, including human resources and IT; and that there should be greater private sector involvement in providing support services, such as running custody suites.
Source: A Frontline Force: Proposals for more effective policing, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | ACPO press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly examined arrangements for the devolution of policing and justice matters to the Assembly (devolution was endorsed by Assembly members on 9 March 2010).
Source: Second Report on the Arrangements for the Devolution of Policing and Justice Matters, Session 2009-10, Northern Ireland Assembly Assembly and Executive Review Committee/TSO
Links: Report volume 1 | Report part 2 | NIA press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The equal rights watchdog said that a number of police forces in England and Wales were using stop-and-search powers in a way that was disproportionate and possibly in breach of the Race Relations Act.
Source: Stop and Think: A critical review of the use of stop and search powers in England and Wales, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Links: Report | EHRC press release | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that early intervention was key to reducing criminality. It called for a long-term prevention strategy focusing on early intervention with at-risk young children and their parents. Children exposed to the most acute combination of risk factors – including family neglect, poverty, school under-achievement, and a lack of positive role models – were 5-20 times more likely to offend than those who were not.
Source: The Government's Approach to Crime Prevention, Tenth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 242, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | BBC report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
A new book examined the key events and policies that had shaped the police service since 1974. It explored the themes of social stability, the professionalization of policing, community relations, centralization, and police reform.
Source: Timothy Brain, A History of Policing in England and Wales from 1974: A turbulent journey, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Mar
A report set out opportunities for police forces and authorities in England and Wales to improve value for money, including reforming police shift patterns to better suit the public and cut back on overtime payments.
Source: High Level Working Group Report on Police Value for Money, Home Office
Links: Report | Home Office press release | ACPO press release | BBC report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Feb
The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the policing of protests.
Source: Demonstrating Respect for Rights? Follow Up: Government Response to the Committee's Twenty-second Report of Session 2008-09, Sixth Report (Session 2009-10), HL 45 and HC 328, Joint Select Committee on Human Rights/TSO
Date: 2010-Feb
Police authorities (in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) published a strategy for improving their performance on equality, diversity, and human rights issues.
Source: Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Strategy for the Police Service, Association of Police Authorities
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs said that the police service in England and Wales should pursue innovative means of service delivery that could allow it to operate with a reduced workforce, if necessary, as a means of managing spending cuts.
Source: Police Service Strength, Fifth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 50, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Police Federation press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report examined the economic cost of crime potentially prevented by the New Deal for Communities programme between 2000-01 and 2004-05. It also examined evidence showing that the NDC programme resulted in reduced levels of crime, and therefore reduced costs of crime.
Source: Adam Whitworth, David McLennan and Michael Noble, Crimes Occurring and Prevented in New Deal for Communities Areas: An approach to estimating the economic costs and benefits, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jan
The opposition Conservative Party published the crime section of its draft election manifesto. It outlined plans to: fight 'booze-fuelled' anti-social behaviour in towns and cities; stop retailers selling alcohol at below cost price; and change the rules so that anyone acting reasonably to stop a crime or apprehend a criminal was not arrested or prosecuted.
Source: Crime: It's Time to Fight Back, Conservative Party
Links: Manifesto section | Conservative Party press release
Date: 2010-Jan