Criminal Behaviour (09/03/15)

In another decisive move that ought to be welcomed across the political spectrum the home secretary, Theresa May, has decided to get rid of the ridiculous ACPOS (the top cops trade union) and replace it with a far smaller body which is fit for purpose.

Getting rid of 300 working groups and a budget of £4.2 million a year - now that's what I call a painless cut in public spending.

The real question is how have the UK's top cops got away with the public paying for their bloated trade union all these years?

If you ask me, it's tantamount to daylight robbery.   

May’s axe cuts police chiefs down to size 

By Tom Harper- The Sunday Times

Theresa May is to replace the Association of Chief Police Officers, a body that some see as arrogant (Bruce Adams/Rex)

THERESA MAY will axe the powerful Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) by the end of the month in a provocative move that will reopen the rift between the Tories and the police.

In her last act as home secretary before the election, May will dissolve Acpo, which is accused by critics of being a “jobs-for-the-boys club”, and replace it with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), a far smaller body.

Many of the powers currently held by Acpo, a not-for-profit private company that leads the development of policing practices in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be hived off to the College of Policing.

A source close to May said Acpo had become “synonymous with unaccountable and corporatist police governance” under the previous Labour government. 

A senior Home Office official said: “The death of Acpo is a highly significant moment and is the final leg of Theresa’s journey towards reform of the police.”

May has repeatedly come into conflict with the police service since becoming home secretary in 2010. As well as criticising the Police Federation, the “union” for rank-and-file officers, she scaled back the use of “stop and search” and used police failings over Hillsborough, Plebgate and the botched Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry to push through her reforms.

Her officials have been disappointed, however, at what they consider to be Acpo’s attempts to block key reforms and its refusal, until compelled by the government, to subject itself to the Freedom of Information Act.

Acpo was set up in 1948 to allow senior officers to discuss and share policing issues but became a private company in 1997. It has since run into a series of controversies including the use of public funds to pay for up to 80 luxury apartments for senior officers in central London.

Since 1997 its influence has mushroomed and it gained a key role advising ministers, campaigning for changes to government legislation and formulating all aspects of national police policy.


Many of May’s reforms were opposed by Sir Hugh Orde, a former Acpo president 

Its annual income from so-called “project work” for the police and Home Office rose from £1.3m in 2005 to £15m in 2009, the year in which it emerged that it had been selling information for visa applications obtained from the police national computer for up to £70, despite the cost of accessing data being just 60p.

Another lucrative venture was to charge the manufacturers of crime-prevention products such as burglar alarms and blast doors for its public approval of their wares.

In 2010 it emerged that Acpo’s terrorism and allied matters committee, headed by John Yates, a former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police, had taken about £1.6m of public money from the counterterrorism budget to pay for a number of apartments in Westminster

Sir Hugh Orde, a former Acpo president, has been an outspoken critics of May’s reforms. In 2011 he described them as the most “radical changes to police governance” since Scotland Yard was formed in 1829.

In an interview in January he described his “continual frustration” that the government was not listening to the police.

However, the abolition of Acpo was welcomed by Christopher Salmon, the police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Dyfed-Powys in Wales.

“Acpo developed all sorts of quasi-business functions with no form of democratic accountability,” he said. “It was a private business operating at the heart of national policing policy. Like all interest groups, it became too powerful, too arrogant and too distant.”

Salmon praised May’s reforms, including better protection for police whistleblowers, a ban on payoffs to discredited senior officers and opening up misconduct hearings to the public. “When you consider how little was changed in the past, it is extraordinary what she has got through,” he said. “It is a phenomenal package of reform.”

Questions over the future of Acpo first emerged as a result of a report by General Sir Nick Parker, a former army officer who served as commander land forces until 2012. He was asked by the 41 PCCs to review Acpo’s role, structure and £4.2m annual funding.

His final report, which was published in 2013, found its status as a limited company was “inconsistent with public accountability” and that its structure was “complex and unorthodox”.

Parker, who said it was unclear how many of Acpo’s 300 working groups are “relevant”, recommended the establishment of a smaller co-ordinating body for chief constables, from which the NPCC developed.

Its first chairwoman, Sara Thornton, the chief constable of Thames Valley police, will take up her post at the start of next month.

“I look forward to leading the new body and doing all that I can to protect the public and build confidence in policing,” said Thornton. “It will be a privilege and challenge to guide the new organisation in its vital role.”

Fears for officers

Every police force in England and Wales is preparing for further budget cuts after the general election, according to a survey.

Many forces are planning to reduce officer numbers as a result of a 5% cut in government funding in 2015-16 and further predicted cuts running to hundreds of millions of pounds over the next five years, the BBC survey found. The cuts follow a reduction to police budgets of 20% since 2011.

Cuts forecast by police and crime commissioners up to 2020 include drops of £61m in Kent, £49m in South Yorkshire and £47.5m in Merseyside.

The number of officers in England and Wales is at its lowest level for more than a decade. A total of 34 of the 43 forces are seeking extra funding through local councils.