back to article Police back ends must be slimmed, says Home Sec

Home Secretary Theresa May has said that police forces need to ensure that they protect frontline staff by making cost savings on IT. May was responding to concerns raised by Labour MP Natascha Engel about budget cuts in Derbyshire and what impact they will have on rural communities. "We have been absolutely clear about the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Cut -

    the middle and upper management first.

    Then the targets and bureaucratic reporting requirements.

    Then the junkets to 'conferences' in far-away hot places.

    Then any post whose title doesn't directly mean "catch the fucking criminals", including Co-ordination Officers; Liaison Officer; Local <insert special interest group name here> Facilitator; any post which keeps a police officer from leaving the warmth and security of the police station / HQ and interacting with the people in the community he's supposed to be working for.

    Do these and I reckon that they'll be plods on almost every corner. Rather than every desk in their office.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      ".....they'll be plods on almost every corner....."

      That might have been a good thing when the police actually worked for the people and had the peoples interests at heart.

      Now the police aren't much more than an enforcement arm of the politicians so I find the prospect of having one on every corner highly disturbing.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    comment

    The problem is the Police have ripped off the taxpayers for several decades with their cosy little deals behind the scenes, their extortionate pensions paid at 50 years, their scam of using American Express credit cards for holidays,massive settlements paid to their own officers when those officers take legal actions whilst at the same time using VAST sums of money and inhouse lawyers and external barristers fighting claims by members of public tooth and nail until settling at loast minute because they know all along they would lose etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. The Police deserve ALL that they now [dont] GET .

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    AC gets my vote

    Well said sir/madam/ma'am

    Heavy mid-top management must be trimmed down all across the public sector (including, in some organisations, elevating post emoluments to that of "Director" rather than what it should be - a simple programme manager).

  4. Marky W
    Happy

    She sells sea shells...

    ...on the she sore.

    Nice subtitle. My tongue is now suitably twisted.

  5. Mark 179
    Welcome

    Easy..

    They just need to slim down the management. The constabulary I worked at had 4 levels of management before you got to anyone remotely technical, all of them were staff rather than officers. They were all constantly building their own little empires to justify their self importance.

    Predictably most of them were useless and on £50k+ a year minimum.

    The officers/staff on the policing side (basically our customer) were more than capable of overseeing the teams directly. they could probably get rid of 75% of IT management and not even notice.

    Can't wait for some of them to get the inevitable chop :)

  6. Sam Liddicott

    they'll lose any savings in fines

    Any IT savings will be lost in fines for not handling personal data properly.

  7. Elmer Phud

    But wasn't it what they wanted?

    I thought the police were supposed to be spending too much on the front line which was why the police stations were closed. IT was to be the big thing. That was after various activities that involved a fair bit of police overtime.

    Now the same peope who started the front line cuts are back and may need to spend a bit more on front line overtime again.

  8. cnorris517
    FAIL

    Hmmmmmm

    They could save a hell of a lot of money at the backend (HR, IT, Finance etc) if they amalgamated all the individual forces, centralised procurement and binned some of the loony laws.

    Next steps:

    1 Reduce day-to-day paperwork to free up front line coppers to do their jobs

    2 As uniforms wear-out replace them with a common (to all forces) kit, if they really must personalise then use velcro patches for their individual force/region.

    3 Reduce the variety of cars, bikes and vans they purchase obviously one vendor is a daft proposition but 20 or 30 is dafter still a happy medium can be found

    3b Once that's done move maintenance either in house or to regional servicing areas rather than dropping the cars off at the local dealerships for £45 wiper blades

    Just a thought

    1. DannyAston
      Thumb Down

      Wiper Blades

      Do police use local garages? I thought they had that in house?

      1. Dr. Mouse

        Yep

        My brother is a mechanic and used to work at a VW dealership. They often had cop cars in for work doing. I don't know whether it was ALL work on the car, or what sort of deal the cops got on it, but I do remember my bro telling me how much fun it was cause of all the "extras" he could play with on it :)

      2. William Old
        Flame

        They did...

        ... but the Home Office made forces close all the workshops and make the mechanics redundant because "... it will be cheaper to use local garages instead..."!

        “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” - George Santayana

  9. Anonymous Stoner

    @ cnorris517

    exactly, I often wonder why they need the cars that they have.

    I mean, all you have to do is watch "Road Wars" on TV and see them cruising around in marked M series BMW's ... and unmarked Ford Focus ST's... and marked Volvo T5's.

    I was watching the other day, and they had a BMW M5 Touring x 2 and 1 Focus ST (all less than 3 years old .... naturally) to "chase down a MASSIVE drug dealer" in his... wait for it, yep... Fiat Punto pos. All I kept thinking was how much more tax money do they want to blow?

    I see them locally too, at the moment there is an unmarked AMG Mercedes that goes around town. Nothing else though, it litterally just drives about with 2 piggies in the front both on £30k +

    1. cnorris517

      re

      I actually thought it was quite a good idea when they started getting the little diesel Astras, I'm guessing they're pretty cheap to buy, run and maintain. They must be as the fleet market is flooded with them.

      Oh and yes they certainly use local garages round here (NW London) in the last 4 years I've been to both Vauxhall and BMW dealerships that had police cars in their service bays with little black hats over their lights.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    How about...

    they stop wasting time and money by criminalising cannabis use?

    The gov could regulate it....

    hold on thats a win/win situation? save money policing it, and make money by taxing it!!??

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I feel I should comment

    As I work in the area that's going to be experiencing these cuts.

    But I'm not really sure what to say.

    I've already noticed a whole bunch of forces are changing their back end systems, some are merging IT services, and to be honest you don't really want to get rid of the IT services for plod, unless you want to go back and live in the 70's. There's a lot more communication that goes on now, between the forces themselves and the other organisations.

    I've no problem with the whole merging of the forces back end systems where it can be done without massive costs.

    There's some other murmurings that do concern me though. All completely unsubstantiated and probably baseless rumour, but I'm personally not keen on the idea of the development and administration of the kind of systems processing criminal records and warrants being done in Mumbai.

    Anon because I'm not supposed to talk about this sort of thing.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Police back ends must be slimmed

    I think we all know the problem here - too many donuts, and too much lazing about at the station!

  13. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Cutting IT

    Funny how in business you invest in IT to save money but everytime a public body wants to save money it does it by cutting IT?

    I think I'll go an turn off a few servers to save make us more profitable.

    Anybody know where I can buy carbon paper, typewriters and some box files to replace them ?

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