link to The Times Online chopped in accordance with site Policies - sorry
Will be interesting to see the comments on this... there are little enough traffic police as it is, I can't see this helping...
Edited by Pugugly on 25/02/2009 at 19:22
|
Yet there are plenty of civilians to sit in camera vans " policing " our roads
There are plenty of plastic bobbies in expensive 4X4's cruising our motorways .
Money is available for these so why not spend it on real police.?
|
Tenuous link to motoring - try and maintain it rather than going off into the realms of police bashing and politics please... unless you want it locked or shifted to one of the credit crunch threads.
|
|
POLICE are becoming obsolete. Dissent will be detected by blanket camera coverage and powerful server farms running sophisticated software. All they need to do is employ some brainless heavies to pickup people identified by the system. In Nottingham lots of new SPECS cameras are being installed, but not primarily as speed cameras and indeed many incapable of being used as speed cameras, but as part of a pilot system called 'Ring of Steel'.
|
|
I believe it's to cope with the mass unrest of peak oil. I'm glad to see Police cuts, no one should be immune from the recession.
|
|
|
|
|
|
It *is* interesting. Various organisations mention that they're removing or replacing "officers" - does that mean effective cuts to what is really middle management, or are constables at the "sharp end" in the firing line? That could have an effect on car/motoring crime, as well as other crime. What is the percentage reduction in the areas mentioned, i.e.:
Gwent minus 80 officers - from a total of ??
North Yorkshire has dropped by 120 in the past two years (from ??)
South Yorkshire Police cut 82 officers last year (ditto)
Surrey is bracing itself for ?significant and painful cuts? with the loss of 144 officers and staff. How many officers, how many staff?
How many traffic police, or generalists, or other specialists?
Without proper details, it's impossible to start to estimate effects of cuts. A very "woolly" newspaper article.
|
Humberside is given as an example of losing 300 Officers. What it does not say is that is over the next 5 years.
The current thrust is towards 'Workforce Modernisation'. Basically Posts that are occupied by Officers (there are many) have been identified as ripe for conversion into a Staff (Civilian) role because the nature of the role does not require the powers bestowed upon a reasonably well paid Officer. Staff salaries are quite a bit less. So, say 300 Posts undertaken by Officers are converted. You have lost 300 Officers and gained 300 Staff with no loss on the front line. Savings are made in the quite substantial difference in salaries. This is a gradual process with natural wastage and retirement reducing the Police numbers. What you have to remember also is that there are very very few 30 year Coppers 'pushing' an Incident Response Car around (pounding the beat). Recruitment stagnates.
What is now being offered is for retiring officers in those posts identified for conversion to be offered the converted post on retirement to retain experience and expertise providing they have been performing well in that role.
In the short term this sounds good for financial savings. But what happens when those retired Officers go for permanent retirement? Who will be ready to step into their role with the necessary skills? Roles such as Civilian Investigators (low level investigation); come the end of the Credit Crunch may either leave for better salaries or apply to become Officers, who would want their jobs with average salaries. No continuity and massive training and retention implications.
Police Officers are omnicompetent, that's the nature of their training and role. People often complain about the above average salaries but they are not paid for what they do, they are paid for what they can do. For example one day they could be working in say a training role and the next a football match or helping victims of flooding. You can't do that with Police Staff.
Another consideration is resilience. The Olympics are not far away. How deep is this recession going to bite? Civil unrest? The Miners Strike saw 12 + hour shifts, 6 days a week. Police Officers were shipped off to other parts of the country . Someone has to stay back and deal with the routine stuff. That went on for nearly a year!
Edited by Fullchat on 25/02/2009 at 00:39
|
'The Miners Strike saw 12 + hour shifts, 6 days a week'
Car dealers in my area couldn't believe their luck when a large part of our force was sent to Yorkshire for duties during the strike. Thanks to the overtime and extra allowances, they had money coming out of their ears on their return and every nick was resplendent with shiny new cars.
|
No police officer can actually lose their job by being made redundant -that should be made clear -only through misconduct, retirement or resignation routes.
I believe the agenda for policing is or was creating a first tier of policing (PCSOs) gradually given more powers. In may places this has stalled or been reversed as they suddenly realise it ain't cheaper in the long run.
Pulling criminals for traffic offences often leads to discovering many other things -this doesn't happen with a camera
|
But it's OK. Because the bankers are all getting to keep their jobs, paid for with £1tr of money that would otherwise have paid for policemen.
|
|
|
|
|
Mr X would say they are both bankers in the cockney way
|
'Mr X would say they are both bankers in the cockney way"
So you know what I will be posting before I even post it. Anything else I am likely to be saying in the near future ?
|
|
No doubt posted with an implied smiley Mr X ?
|
|
|
|
