Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Workforce Modernisation and Future Resilience within the Police Service in England and Wales / Vathek Publishing, 10 July 2008
http://www.atypon-link.com/VAT/doi/abs/10.1350/pojo.2008.81.1.428
Police Journal 81(1): p.62-81
Barry Loveday
"
This article is based on a presentation given to the National Workforce Modernisation Programme Conference at Leeds in 2008. It argues that the issue of future police resilience should not stand in the way of modernisation and that while it may be used as a defence of the status quo there is growing evidence that reform can be expected to enhance police service delivery. It argues that the nature of police establishment growth has meant that there has been no attempt to match police numbers to police functions and that incremental growth, which has characterised police officer expansion, now means that it is difficult to defend current police numbers. This problem is made worse by the challenge presented by police abstraction rates, which appear to have increased in line with police establishment. It is also suggested that the increasing operational role of police staff is rarely taken into account by HMIC when assessing police performance even though many former police functions are now the responsibility of civilian personnel. As a result the threat to police resilience, used as a defence of current police establishment, may significantly exaggerate the challenge that workforce modernisation represents."
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