Police Fed and ACPO disagree as police cuts start to hurt

1 June 2011 by Rod McLaren

The budget cuts are starting to hurt, but the pain is now internal: this week we saw sharp words between the Police Federation, who are a union-like association for 140,000 rank and file police officers, and ACPO, who perform the same role for chief constables and other senior officers. The Police Federation are annoyed with Sir Hugh Orde’s non-attendance at their conference, believing it to be a symptom of a wider failure of ACPO to prevent/resist the cuts. They’ve written a critical open letter to ACPO, who are no doubt annoyed that the Pol Fed and so have offered a equally public rebuttal.

Paul McKeever and Ian Rennie, for the Police Federation (pdf file):

We currently have the ‘perfect storm’ in policing resulting from Winsor’s attack on pay and conditions, Neyroud’s proposals on promotion and leadership, and Lord Hutton’s proposals on pensions. Policing and Crime Commissioners will potentially change the political dynamics in the Service and there is a move to remove police officers from the protection of health and safety legislation. Police officers are rightly demoralised by this full-on attack on their pay and working conditions. Experienced officers are leaving, or being required to leave the service, in unprecedented numbers and those that remain will be shouldering an ever-increasing burden of public expectation as crime increases. [...]

Sir Hugh, the Police Federation is looking to ACPO to defend the UK Police Service. It is the envy of the world, but is in danger of being destroyed by what appears to be, in part, no more than political ideology. Our conference has sent a clear message that officers currently have no confidence in ACPO, as an organisation, acting in the best interests of British Policing. We urge you to work with us, challenge the government where necessary, and to modernise the Service but not at the expense of the Office of Constable and the communities they serve. The officers working throughout the Police Service in England and Wales are deserving of greater support from their leaders.

Orde for ACPO (pdf file), and signed by many of the ACPO top brass:

I can say with absolute certainty that every chief officer team is working tirelessly within their force, bearing in mind the very difficult financial situation we are presented with, to cut budgets while preserving the critical service we deliver to the public. The reality is that this is extremely challenging: and a number of forces have had to take drastic action to balance budgets. We must be entirely clear about this with our public, with government and with all those who work within the service. Each force is impacted in different ways and many chiefs have articulated this both in public and in private. Without question, the service overall will suffer and reduce. As chief officers our job is to lead policing through these difficult times, remaining focussed on keeping communities safe from harm. [...]

The Winsor, Neyroud and Hutton recommendations are all subject to consultation and we are determined that the outcomes of these processes should recognise and reward officers fairly for the difficult, dangerous and critical job that they do. I feel we can best do this by recognising our different roles but more importantly reinforcing our desire to serve our communities.

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