Priti Patel ‘planning league tables to rank police forces on crime reduction’
Police forces could be ranked by their success in cutting serious crime in “league tables”, reports suggest.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is said to be drawing up the plans which some chief constables have warned would be a return to targets, according to The Times.
Police chiefs have been told they will be measured on six crime types including homicide, violence and cybercrime, the newspaper said.
The system of “national crime and policing measures” has been described as a return to the culture of targets and “akin to league tables”, after the Government pledged to invest in 20,000 more police officers.
But a Government source told the newspaper they were not classified as targets and were more about tracking progress as part of making sure forces are held to account.
In a letter, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse reportedly said the plan would provide “national accountability and collective responsibility” but “does not represent a return to force-led numerical targets”.
John Apter, national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, warned that proposals for league tables would “herald a return to a damaging, target-driven culture” and urged the Government to “stop and think before returning to the mistakes of their predecessors”.
He added: “Mechanisms for holding individuals and forces to account are in place, and we are already among the most scrutinised professionals in the world.
“Targets in policing are not new, and we have seen before that, when resources become scarce, forces focus on targets to the exclusion of other issues.”
Harvey Redgrave, chief executive of criminal justice consultancy Crest Advisory, said: “We would need to see the detail, but on the face of it there is nothing wrong with the Government seeking to publish comparable performance information across different police force areas.”
But he added: “Purely outcome-based measures are a poor way to hold policing to account.”
A Home Office spokeswoman told the newspaper: “The public expects the Government to work with the police to cut crime and keep them safe.”
At a police conference in February last year Ms Patel told chiefs cutting crime was “non-negotiable” and there must be “no weak spots” in efforts to do so.
She told them she was “unequivocal” in her support for officers but added: “I will be unapologetic about holding you to account.”
It prompted National Police Chiefs’ Council chair Martin Hewitt to set a three-year target for results, saying improvements in tackling crime must be felt by the public by April 2023 or “we will have failed”.
