Home Secretary challenges police to be answerable to the public with new single confidence target 5 March 2009
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Publishing the single national target for the police, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith today challenged the police service to answer to the public – and not Government. From today the only national police target set from Whitehall is to increase public confidence by 15 percentage points so that the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter to them locally are being addressed.
Home Office figures published today show that confidence levels currently vary across the country, with the latest national average at 46 per cent. The new national target announced today is 60 per cent.
The single national target is just one part of the Policing Green Paper, published last summer, which signalled a fundamental shift in police accountability and reporting. It is now local people, rather than central government, telling the police what service they need and holding them to account via the policing pledge.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "I have a single-minded focus on building public confidence in policing and that means the police should be answering to the public, not the Government. That is why I have scrapped all but one central target for the police - to raise public confidence.
“I have always been clear that this target needs to be challenging if we are to see real change in public confidence in the police. By 2012 I want to see at least 60 per cent of people confident that the police are addressing what matters locally.
“I am committed to ensuring police forces are working with local crime fighting partners to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter most to communities so that the public can get on with their lives – and have the confidence to play their part by reporting crime when they see it. The Policing Pledge, now in operation in all 43 police forces, for the first time makes clear what the public can expect from the police nationally and locally — such as minimum standards on response times, crime maps, local crime information and monthly public meetings. We have also made radical cuts in police red-tape to free up police time.
“I know that the police are ready to meet this challenge and that the changes we have made will help them to do so.”
Police forces and authorities have also been set a level of confidence that they should reach by March 2011. Both this, and their 2012 target, will be measured by questions asked in the regular British Crime Survey.
To support the police in delivering this new target we have already announced a package of slashes to red tape which will save the equivalent of a whole week each year for every police officer to patrol your street more often and tackle the crimes that matter to your community. By freeing up the police we are returning to common sense policing – trusting officers to use their professional judgment to build the confidence of their communities and to deliver the service that the public want.
