New Leadership

I wrote the other day about new blood and new leadership being required in the Police Service - see post dated 31 January 2013: 'Dicing with Death'. 

Well here's someone who seems to agree with me - Geoffrey Dear, now Lord Dear - who was previously a senior police officer and inspector of Her Majesty's 'thin blue line' between 1990 and 1997.

Now, not only is Lord Dear agreeing with the thrust of my original argument - he's making my point for me - because he embodies the underlying issue about the desire of police officers to keep pesky outsiders - from looking critically and independently at the way in which the police operate.

Why else was a retired chief police constable handed another plum public sector role for 8 years between 1990 and 1997 - if not to meet the perceived need for the police service to be regulated by an insider (one of us) - rather than an outsider (one of them).

The public interest ought to be paramount in these situations - but if the trust of the public is to be gained - then the police ought not to be regulating and inspecting themselves.

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to obtain operational insight into policing issues - without appointing retired and very senior police officers to the most important jobs.   

Most wanted: new leadership for the police

We can’t wait for elite trainees to come on stream, so we must gamble on outside talent

Not so long ago misconduct by a senior police officer was rare and newsworthy. Not now.

Too many top-rank officers are in trouble in the courts and serious doubts are being cast about the trustworthiness of the service at all levels — the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 disturbances, Plebgate, phone-hacking, Hillsborough, the apparent politicisation of the Police Federation and so on. Certainly the police can point to falling crime rates and great success in preventing further terrorist attacks since 7/7, but their response too often appears to be disconnected from what the public expect.

The basic problem is leadership. The service has created, trained and promoted to its top ranks managers, rather than leaders. The roots of this go deep, certainly to a decision taken at the Police Staff College in the early 1990s to drop the focus on leadership on the grounds that it was “divisive and elitist” and concentrate instead on management. The police, like much of the public sector, remain preoccupied with the management ethic, ignoring the words of Viscount Slim — a noted leader in both the army and the commercial world — that “managers are necessary, leaders are essential”.

The result is a service that is too risk averse, frequently process-driven and displays all the defensive attitudes of the besieged. Of course there are notable exceptions, but the picture among the senior ranks overall is depressing and getting worse.

Faced with this crisis in leadership, the Home Secretary is proposing that we import people of calibre from the business world and abroad, rather than simply promoting from within. Policemen such as Bill Bratton, who ran the New York and Los Angeles police departments, could be made chief constables and businessmen could join at superintendent level.

It carries risks but maybe it’s worth a shot given the circumstances. It is important that foreign officers come from countries with similar common-law legal systems, such as Australia, New Zealand and the US. There are many examples of successful individuals who might be tempted. Well-qualified men and women frequently move around different sectors in industry and commerce, often with great success. So why not within the police?

But I do have one big concern. Few police forces abroad combine in one single body — as happens in the UK — such a wide range of responsibilities such as for common crime, counter-terrorism, protection of high-risk individuals and crowd control, and all by a largely unarmed workforce. Get it wrong by appointing the wrong individual to a top job, and there is a real risk that the resulting furore could kill off fast-track recruitment, an idea whose time has come.

The police service needs to attract its fair share of top-quality graduates from Russell Group universities, who have all the essential qualities of integrity, common sense, resilience — and the ability to lead. Yet a career in the police does not figure as an option for high-flying graduates. The service is still seen as a blue-collar occupation even though it offers variety, challenges and an opportunity to change society for the better.

The problem was recognised in the reports by Tom Winsor, now the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, whose aim is to change the service into a white-collar profession. The establishment of a College of Policing, an equivalent to the royal colleges that champion the other professions, to identify and promote best practice is a good move, but everything will depend on attracting and retaining the best talent available.

We need an officer corps. The majority should carry on climbing the ranks as happens now, but we also need an annual intake of 250 or more graduates who should be groomed for leadership. The Home Office’s suggestion of 80 graduates is too little to reach the critical mass necessary to transform the service.

Standards should be demanding; training rigorous; underachievement should lead to culling. All of this is standard in the Armed Forces and the big corporations. It should not be anathema to accelerate these entrants so that they reach the rank of chief inspector or superintendent by the age of 30 or so. It happens in the Army. Experience on the street is essential, but not for an unrealistically long time, and ranks could be skipped.

Diehards in the service will oppose this, but they have no alternative other than more of the same and look where that has led us.

A two-tier system is a good bet for the future. But it will take at least eight years before the new generation of leaders can begin to make itself felt within the police service. The Government is taking a gamble with its idea of bringing in outside talent now. But with the pressing shortage of first-rate candidates for the highest ranks of the police, it’s a gamble that we will probably have to take.

Lord Dear was Chief Constable of the West Midlands from 1985 to 1990 and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary from 1990 to 1997.