ACPO responds to Central Lobby Blog on future of Association

Mr Reckless's blog, which can be found here, asserted that ACPO President Sir Hugh Orde "threatened to resign rather than see the police become democratically accountable."

Mr Reckless is referring to an interview given to the Today Programme in November of 2009, where Sir Hugh said he "absolutely would" resign if he was still Chief Constable of a police force, rather than allow political interference in operational policing. Although Sir Hugh is still a chief constable, he is not Chief of an operational police force and at no point did he suggest he would resign as ACPO President. He has also been instrumental in ensuring that ACPO as an organisation is as accountable as possible.

Mr Reckless also said: "We should not pay over £4 million* every year to maintain an organisation that often serves to undermine the democratic independence and legitimacy of locally elected PCCs."

To clarify - The Association of Chief Police Officers as an association does not receive £4m per year. Rather, the Association’s Central Office (which, as the administrative arm of the voice of operational police leadership, runs Chief Constables’ Council, provides member and programme support to our many working groups and business areas, oversees our finance and HR provision, supports the President and houses the offices of the Chief Executive, Director of Information and Communications Department, all with a staff of less than 20) receives £1.2m annually from PCCs.

Central Office was remarked upon by General Sir Nick Parker in his review as providing value for money. General Parker also said the current funding arrangement was a good starting point.

The remainder of the £4m alluded to relates to funding given to national units under the ACPO banner but run separately, such as the National Ballistic Intelligence Service, the National Wildlife Unit and the ACPO Criminal Records Office, which also have host force arrangements with, respectively, West Midlands Police, Police Scotland/GMP and Hampshire Constabulary .

We hope this clarifies our position in relation to the article and we look forward to this afternoon's debate at 4:30pm.

For more information please contact:

ACPO Press Office
Association of Chief Police Officers
e: press.office@acpo.pnn.police.uk