Describe the Role of a Modern Police Service
Describe the Role of a Modern Police Service.
This essay will explore the role and function of the modern police service within Great Britain. It will start by introducing the history of the police service, and try to determine its original goals and reasons for existence. This will then be compared to the service that is in existence today, and discuss how much more responsibility the police services have. Next this essay will take a look at the current make up of the police service, and how it has been adapted to suit the roles laid out in the previous discussion. A further exploration will discuss how the police have adopted to new tasks by introducing alternative policing strategies, yet further evolving based on evaluation of its past. Public perception of the police also affects how the future role of policing is also developed and this will be discussed briefly. Finally a brief look at the future of the police service, and the Home Office police reform programme will be discussed to evaluate the forthcoming changes to today's police services.
The role of the police service has changed immensely since its conception by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. The new system of police was the first of its kind within the world. It had been established in London, to formalise the policing to the laws governing in society. The previous Anglo-Saxon system of watches, and parish constables had failed due immense social and economic changes and the consequent movement of the population to the towns. It was at this time government passed the first Metropolitan Police Act and the Metropolitan Police Force was established.
Sir Richard Mayne, the first commissioner of the Police Metropolis wrote of the role of the newly formed of the Metropolitan Police during his first year in post. "The primary object of an efficient police is the prevention of crime: the next that of detection and punishment of offenders if crime is committed. To these ends all the efforts of police must be directed. The protection of life and property, the preservation of public tranquillity, and the absence of crime, will alone prove whether those efforts have been successful and whether the objects for which the police were appointed have been attained."(Metropolitan Police n.d.).
Now 175 years later the basic principles that Sir Richard Mayne believed in are still one of the many that are used in running the modern police service seen in Great Britain, and throughout the United Kingdom today. Although the actual role of today's police service is somewhat of a debate, even internally to its own individual chief constables or commissioners, the belief that the police are there to primarily prevent crime, and secondarily for the detection of crime and punishment of offenders is a stereotypical view carried in today's community. The truth in the matter is nowadays the police service are merely the "gatekeepers" on today's criminal justice process, and are supported by a several other equally important agencies in the quest of detecting crime, the punishing of offenders, and the ensuring of justice.
Today's police force also carries other roles except the management of crimes, and pursing cases to court. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has highlighted that police work can be generalised into five key areas (ACPO 1993):
* Traffic control and related matters
* Crime prevention and detection
* Community relations and dealing with community problems.
* Public reassurance and public order maintenance; and lastly
* Responding to emergency calls.
It is these extra tasks placed upon the police force of today that makes it differ from that during its ...
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Today's police force also carries other roles except the management of crimes, and pursing cases to court. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has highlighted that police work can be generalised into five key areas (ACPO 1993):
* Traffic control and related matters
* Crime prevention and detection
* Community relations and dealing with community problems.
* Public reassurance and public order maintenance; and lastly
* Responding to emergency calls.
It is these extra tasks placed upon the police force of today that makes it differ from that during its inception.
Although we often refer to the police as a single entity, the diversity and roles of the modern police services now reflect upon the make up of the responsibilities of police as discussed above. A report from Her Majesties Inspectorate of Constabulary reveals that the current division of police resources equates to 55% of police officers being a uniformed operational patrol. These officers are usually perceived to be the "back bone" of policing, providing public reassurance via routine patrols or answering emergency calls. Yet although the numbers seem adequately high, it is now perceived that only 5% of the total amount of police officers is engaged in patrol at any one time (Audit Commission 1996).
In comparison only 15% of the total amounts of police officers are dedicated to investigating crimes. The Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) where historically one of the first to be established within the police force, but the decrease in the use of detectives and the resources available to them does honestly reflect the current role of police's involvement in the detection and investigation of crime. A further 7% of police officers are now dedicated to policing the roads, and specifically the drivers and their vehicles. The traffic units are comparatively the newest of all the units with the police services yet they find themselves in a more demanding position now the use of motor vehicles is an integral part of modern society.
The shift in roles and responsibilities, and the introduction of new legislation has also led to the police within Britain adopting a mixture of policing styles in an attempt to try and handle these new situations. Some of these styles have indeed been further developed due to past mistakes, thus creating a further improved modern police service. An example of this was the introduction of zero tolerance policing within the London community of Lambeth during the 1980s. Codenamed 'Operation Swamp' the initiative only lasted 4 days and had resulted in 943 stops of members of the public, but yet only 93 people had been arrested for minor criminal offences. More than half of the people stopped where black. The police suffered heavily from allegations of harassment, maltreatment, and facilitation of evidence. This soon led to wide-spread civil unrest within the local black communities, causing what has now been infamously labelled the "Brixton riots". The outcome was soon to lead to one of the police services biggest changes since its inception. The government launched the Scarman inquiry, primarily looking at the police's powers for stop and search, and primarily their accountability, and eventually led to the passing of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
These types of mistakes have in the past led to the public confidence in the police dealing effectively with crime and criminals slipping below an acceptable standard. This has also not been helped by the fact of the majority of the public's impressions of today's police force are being driven by the drama series seen on TV, a majority of which are based in American law enforcement agencies. These programmes glamorise the role of the police, with the star of the show solving the crime and always winning in court, without showing the obvious burdens and bureaucracy of paperwork and the complete process of the British legal systems.
Despite the popularity of the "crime-fighter" image, a great deal of police work is mundane. Research has demonstrated that far less police time is spent in "crime-related" activity than in providing a "service" by, for example, calming disturbances, negotiating disputes and responding to a wide range of accidents and emergencies. (Maguire, Morgan, et al. 2002 p987). The 1988 British Crime Survey statistics have in the past shown that only 18% of all public contact with the UK's police services actually involves crime. It can therefore been seen as ironic, that given the proportion of time spent dealing with crime related incident, and the higher proportion thus dealing with the other service related functions, that the public devalue the police purely on the face of crime related incidents.
The public poor perception of the police and in particular the perceived lack of contact with today's police force has caused the government to essentially redevelop the face of the police service within Great Britain. The new Police Reform Act, and related legislation has helped introduce new roles and responsibilities for the police services in the UK. Exceptionally the new initiative has also introduce the Community Support Officer, and other such civilianised positions to help support constables in helping to release more police officers, and uniformed civilian staff into the community by cutting bureaucracy and paperwork. The government has also re-aligned a significant amount of police officers, and turned them into dedicated neighbour hood teams, re-introducing a previous policing strategy known as "community engagement policing" (Home Office 2003). It has also added future policing objectives of tacking low level disorder, antisocial behaviour, and signal crimes, thus changing the law adequately to do so.
The reform also has included the incorporation of National Security, and the protection of the country from organised crime, and terrorism into the responsibility of the police. In an alternative tactic the Home Office, instead of allowing the police to internally develop by taking on these extra responsibilities has laid out specific plans for the future addition of a new Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), governing the direction and intelligence of this type of policing activity.
These developments are believed by the current government to dictate the roles of the future police service within Great Britain, by taking on wider responsibility but cutting bureaucracy and adding resources to allow them to adapt adequately.
At first glance. It might seem that we appreciate who the police are, and what the police do, yet the methods and responsibilities of the police service are subject to constant change. The traditional and stereotypical view that the role of the police service is simply to detect, investigate and possibly prevent crime is something of the past. This may have been the case at the very inception of the police services within Great Britain, but since that time they have had to adapt to reflect the ever changing society within our country. This has now included them taking on the responsibility of policing our roads, mediating our communities, and responding to emergency calls, all of which the majority of the time do not have any impact on crime within the country.
The change in the responsibilities of the police services have enabled them to try and develop internally, to deal more efficiently with the resources they have access too. The police are now segmented into specialist units, allowing them to deal more professionally with a vast amount of duties. The high visibility response units are the more obvious element to the police, responding to emergencies, with an added view to preventing crime. Yet the majority of police services throughout Britain also have adopted marine based police unit, specialist traffic cars, teams of detectives, all of which have been introduced to support the extra roles that are now associated with today's police service.
Methods of policing have changes over the last 175 years too. When the police existed primarily to prevent crime, and then investigate it the tactics where relatively straight forward. Now the division of resources, alongside the ever constant social and technological changes have seen the police introduce, and again fade out newer and improved policing methods. The constant evaluation of these methods are necessary, as mistakes are common, and every costly. Yet these reviews will normally lead to more promising legislation and reforms that allow the police to conform to the responsibilities they have more easily and effectively.
From the outside the public's view of the constant evolution of the police service is predominantly negative. With stereotypes being drawn out of fiction, and drama portrayed on TV, the police service never conforms to the glamorous detectives, persecuting the "bad-guys". This is primarily due to the majority of the public not having contact with the police, and thus not having a full understanding of their role. This has now been addressed by the governments police reform programme.
It is now seen that the future role of the police service is that of high visibility, community engagement policing. It is yet another responsibility being placed on the service, yet the incorporation of extra police officers and community support officers may help relieve any burden. Yet whilst all the time society changes the role of the modern police service will never be set in stone, and will be as diverse and fluctuating as the society that they in turn "police".
Bibliography
Association of Chief Police Officers. (1993) Your Police Service; A service to value. London ACPO
Audit Commission (1993). Helping with Enquiries: Tackling Crime Effectively. London HMSO
Home Office (2004). Building Communities, Beating Crime: A better police service for the 21st Century. London HMSO
MAGUIRE, Mike, Rod Morgan, Robert Reiner (2002). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. New York. Oxford University Press.
Metropolitan Police History.(n.d.) retrieved on April 16th, 2005 from http://www.met.police.uk/history/definition.htm
Student No.:352446 Page 1 of 5 Wednesday, 09 May 2007
