Local Targets "hamper" Police says Howarth
November 12, 2007 12:00 AM
NEWS RELEASE
November 12th 2007
Embargo: Immediate
NATIONAL TARGETS "HAMPER" POLICE - HOWARTH
Cambridge MP, David Howarth, has said Government targets are preventing the police from carrying out their duties.
Commenting on a Police Federation report which shows a chronic shortage of sufficiently qualified officers with 2,000 vacant detective posts in England and Wales
Mr Howarth said: "This Police Federation report confirms what we have all been saying for a long time. Top down targets distort local priorities and prevent the police from acting on their own initiative and using their own common sense when it comes to setting local priorities for policing.
"We now live in a monolithic state where bureaucrats dictate to those who are running our public services what they should do and when they should do it.
"These senseless targets which are put in place to further the ambitions of the government are skewing our crime figures and leading to problems in recruiting officers of the right caliber. We must stop looking at officers' performance levels in such a way that it doesn't allow them to do their jobs properly.
"The Government's obsession with centralisation in all areas of policy is failing everybody, including the council tax payers of Cambridge and damaging our public services."
ENDS
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