Fighting Paper And Fighting Crime

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 12

Fighting Paper And Fighting Crime

When the police reach their newly-approved strength of one man for every 920 citizens—instead of one for every 950—and employ an extra 50 civilians for backroom work they should be better placed to deal with the growing incidence of crime, especially in the larger cities. Until this year it would have been pointless to change the ratio, which determines the police establishment; police numbers have been too far below the allowable maximum—at times, about 150 below establishment Better pay and conditions have attracted more men and women into police service. The new ratio, announced by the Minister of Police, Mr Allen, further challenges the recruiting and training efforts of the department K these are successful in the next three years, during which Mr Allen expects the higher establishment to be filled, the number of policemen will probably increase by about 230. On the old ratio of one to 950 the number would have risen by about 130. In a force.that is still below 3000 even the higher increase may not look very impressive. Even if the extra 50 civilian employees wholly relieve 50 policemen of clerical and administrative jobs—or, as is more likely, take over an equivalent amount of backroom work now shared by hundreds of policemen—the effective increase in police strength for work that requires police training will be only 10 per cent in the next three years. So in terms of manpower, which is by no means the only measure of effectiveness, police strength should go up rather less than 4 per cent a year. That is sufficient to match the general increase in police work as represented by the number of offences reported. But it by no means matches the increase, year by year, in some serious crimes, particularly in those crimes likely to consume a great deal of police skill and time The extra staff is not likely to be spread evenly throughout the country. It ought to be concentrated where the incidence of serious crime is greatest, notably in the cities. Here the addition of 230 men should have some significance. Even this gain will be imperilled if the best use is not made of civilian staff. Working procedures in stations and headquarters will have to be overhauled, especially in the massive business of preparing and handling reports and documents. The Minister’s decision on a new ratio may not reach an ideal figure; for recruiting purposes it is probably realistic—perhaps Mr Allen is even too optimistic. Nevertheless, his two moves are in the right direction and they should be fully exploited by the Commissioner of Police and superintendents to increase the effectiveness of police operations. Policemen should be freed from the paper war in police stations to fight crime in the streets.