ACPO launches decision model for all policing

Chief constables in England and Wales have adopted a new decision-making approach for the police service that puts values at its heart.

The National Decision Model (NDM) will replace all existing decision models in policing. It is part of a concerted drive to focus on delivering the mission of policing while acting in accordance with values, enhancing the use of discretion and professional judgement, reducing risk-aversion and in so doing helping to strike the balance between demand for police services and increasingly limited resources.

The development of the NDM has been led by Chief Constable Adrian Lee and Chief Constable Brian Moore – who chair the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Ethics and Risk Co-ordination portfolios respectively – ensuring that the way the police service approaches risk has a sound ethical grounding.

Mr Lee, chief constable of Northamptonshire Police, said: “The NDM is a deliberately simple model and it shares common ingredients with the three models for decision-making it replaces. The model is for use by the whole of the police service, not just for operational decisions, and provides a practical tool for police officers and police staff making difficult decisions in challenging circumstances.

“The most significant shift for the new NDM is the central touchstone that focuses on the policing mission, the values we share, risks and protection of human rights. These factors must be considered at every stage because the decisions officers and staff make need to be both technically and ethically right.”

“The elements of the model are very familiar to people but I think rather than saying ‘I think this is how I did it’, you can say ‘there’s a model. Here are the five stages. I went through them and at each stage I was trying to implement what I understand to be the mission and values of the police service. If as a result of that some harms come that was completely avoidable then that’s how I defend my decision-making’. It’s about helping staff to properly record their rationale.”

Surrounding this central core of the NDM are five stages, each of which encourage a considered approach to intelligence, risk, and applicable powers and policy as precursors to taking action – interspersed with prompts to review action taken and develop a working strategy based on intelligence, threat and risk.

Mr Moore, chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said: “Understanding and managing risks, both those to the general public and those to the police service itself, are fundamental to effective policing.

“The adoption of the NDM is a significant development in this regard and will also contribute to achieving reductions in bureaucracy as well as developments in safeguarding and public protection.”

Chief constables across the country have agreed that the NDM will officially replace the Conflict Management Model (CMM), Scanning, Analysing and Responding to and Assessing Problems (SARA) and the Values-Based Decision-Making model with immediate effect.

Work has already begun on the implementation of the model, led by the ACPO Business areas and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). An e-learning package is being developed to provide quick and readily available training, which can be brief and simple, like the model itself.

And Mr Moore said the NDM will change the way officers are recruited to the force.