Police leaders set out vision for new era of policing

Speaking at the NPCC & APCC Partnership Summit, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and Emily Spurrell, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), announced their intention to work with government to deliver far reaching reforms that will deliver capability to address new crime threats and help restore the public’s trust and confidence.

Headlines from the announcement, which was made at the QEII Centre in Westminster, include:

• A national policing body with legal status, that can lead the policing response to national threats and drive efficiencies.
• Ambition to draw together national policing data to identify and intercept criminal activity quicker.
• Renewed focus on crime prevention to reduce crime and reoffending.

Outlining the need for a central policing body that can respond to some of the biggest national and global threats, freeing up forces to respond to important local issues, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, NPCC Chair, said:

“An organisation of this nature could provide strategic, operational and enabling capabilities on behalf of all police forces, doing so once, and well, preventing duplication, and if sustained over the long term, enabling reinvestment into local policing, where it is most needed.”

Setting out the need for wide-reaching change, the Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Emily Spurrell said:

“We are united in our ambition to serve local communities better. We have to increase the pace of change in policing, driving improvement so that we can deliver a better service and improve public trust and confidence. To deliver this, we have to follow the evidence of what will genuinely improve policing for the public and how and where we can make the biggest impact.”

Gavin said: “Fortunately, never before have chief constables, police leaders and Government been so united in the view that to protect our communities locally, from global threats, policing needs to change.”

As well as a national policing body, Gavin spoke about the importance of improving policing’s ability to collect data at a national level to drive better strategic decision making:

“We must draw together national policing data under common standards, allowing us to identify criminal activity quickly, intercept it proactively and highlight patterns of growing concern. 

“It will also enable us to build the tools needed to combat advancing criminal tactics – not in a force-by-force manner which is hugely expensive, but nationally, once – and for all.”

APCC Chair, Emily Spurrell, welcomed the government’s support for Police and Crime Commissioner and Deputy Mayor led initiatives in crime prevention:

“PCCs respond to local issues and community concerns on crime and policing. It is telling that some of the most impactful innovations have started locally, before being rolled out nationally. Operation Pegasus addressing retail crime and Operation Soteria, tackling rape and serious sexual assault, as well as hotspot policing addressing serious violence and anti-social behaviour, to name just a few.

“Proposals for reform need to recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach will rarely be the right solution but, scaling up approaches that demonstrably work is in all of our interests.”

In her speech to the Summit, the APCC Chair praised the police and wider public response to the summer disorder. She also gave her support for a duty of candour in policing and the wider public sector to improve and increase public trust and confidence. 

In his closing remarks, Gavin summed up his drive to make policing better for everyone, and how we must not shy away from the challenge of reform:

“I make no exaggeration when I say this is a once in a generation chance for us to transform policing. The last one was 60 years ago. Let us not delay any longer.”