X-factor of policing difficult to define

Police officers can no longer claim to be different to other sectors in working unsocial hours and having restrictions placed on their private lives, as part of the consultation into Part Two of the Winsor Review of terms and conditions.

A panel discussion into the review at the Association of Chief Police Officers’ annual conference heard how changes to other sectors mean police officers face a challenge to define the unique nature of policing.

Sir Ted Crew, the independent police advisor to the Review said one question posed was whether there is an X-factor that can be applied to recognise the unique nature of policing and whether that should also apply to police staff.

Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross said it is no longer the case that the service can claim to be different because of shift work or unsocial hours. And many friends now face the prospect of being required to work away from home.

“We need to have a long hard look at ourselves as an organisation and say ‘what is the X-factor of policing?’ Some of the things we have relied on are no longer there.”

Peter Davies, chief executive of CEOP, said it is wrong to look within terms and conditions for differences as there isn’t anything unique to policing that isn’t shared by others in private and public sectors. However, he said police officers are increasingly being asked to take more difficult decisions.

“What could be seen as the X-factor is that we are now loading additional discretion onto officers, the massive consequences and the level of accountability for those consequences.”

Tim Jackson of the Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales said the X-factor for police officers includes a willingness to turn their hand to anything, get involved in situations where they are “horribly outnumbered” and to uphold the peace, often as one person on a very thin blue line.

“It is the willingness to stand up to the plate, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. He said police officers’ lives are never their own and the degree of scrutiny faced by officers when off duty is unlike any others,” he said.

Chair of the APA, Rob Garnham, said: “Whatever the X-factor is will need to stand the test of public opinion, especially when police and crime commissioners are elected and questioning rewards.”

He added that nurses and doctors now face ethical requirements to act when off-duty and could claim the same limitations as police officers.