Summary/Findings - Rebuilding Trust and Delivering Safer Communities: A Plan for Reforming UK Policing

• The paper opens with a foreword by Baroness Casey. These opening remarks discuss the findings in the previously mentioned polling. In addition, Baroness Casey notes that as criminal activity continues to evolve, policing is unable to keep pace with this change, and also that there should be a focus on neighbourhood policing. The foreword also briefly mentions the public’s relationship with the police, and how the policing by consent model has been damaged in London. The foreword concludes with advocating for “wholescale and radical reform” to rebuild trust and confidence.
• The paper is structured by identifying drivers for reform, corresponding policy implications and recommendations. These recommendations are underpinned by the polling data discussed in the previous section.
• Rising demand and broadening of the police’s role – The report discusses how the landscape of policing has changed considerably, with the profile of crime being very different to previous decades. This is seen through an increase in serious violence including knife-enabled crime, and the impact of cyber-enabled crime. In addition, the changing expectations of the police is highlighted, including the impact of mental health demand, and the pressure faced by police to respond to traditionally “hidden” types of violence, such as sexual offences and domestic abuse, with 17% of recorded crime in England and Wales relating to domestic abuse (which includes familial, intra-household abuse).

As such, the report suggests that policing shifts to a more preventative model and reestablishes neighbourhood policing, which leads to Recommendation 1: Putting prevention at the heart of policing, with a new neighbourhood policing guarantee and greater focus on diverting prolific offenders away from crime.

• Technological change: new crimes and threats - In particular, the report notes the prevalence of online crime, with 61% of fraud recorded in 2022 being cyber-enabled. This, combined with the increased prevalence of child sexual abuse, requires policing to develop new skills and capabilities. The report suggests that a lack of alternative routes of entry into policing, limited performance management for police and a lack of a national strategy to develop specialist capabilities (such as digital forensics) is highlighted as being a barrier to policing being adaptable. This is summarised in Recommendation 2: A modern and flexible workforce, with multiple new entry routes into policing to encourage new skills.
• Declining confidence in the ability of the police to uphold standards and respond to issues of local concerns - The report also discusses a reduction of confidence in policing at a local level. Whilst this reduction in confidence can be seen across society, this is described as being particularly prevalent in some communities. This leads to Recommendation 3: A new focus on professional standards and responsiveness, with forces judged by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to be failing to be subject to intervention from the centre, as well as new ways for the public to drive action on issues of local concern, such as anti-social behaviour.
• Concern about the effectiveness of existing policing structures - The 43 forces that make up policing in England and Wales are found to pose challenges to how the police can respond to crimes which cross force boundaries or crimes which require a national-level response. In addition, the report notes the ‘Specialist Capabilities’ that may require development (e.g., digital forensics). The report advocates for this to be developed on a national scale. This is also relevant with the reported “lack of a coherent approach to investment in and use of police technology”, with the siloing of resources and a lack of interoperability noted by the report. This results in the report’s Recommendation 4: An overhaul of structures, with a new national force to tackle threats that cross force boundaries and require a strategic response, encompassing counterterrorism, serious organised crime (SOC) and cyber-crime. This recommendation is in contrast to the findings of the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales, commissioned by The Police Foundation. This review found that “there is a real risk that [a national force] would break the local connection that it is at the heart of effective and legitimate policing”.
• Officer numbers – “Traditional policy levers” such as increased officer numbers, will likely not be an option for police forces in England and Wales, with the report suggesting that the continued increase in government spending on healthcare due to an aging population resulting in police funding being “squeezed rather than expanded”. This is supplemented by analysis which the report summarises as showing no direct relationship between police officers and detection rates. The report’s final Recommendation is Recommendation 5: Smarter use of technology to prevent criminality, including digital identity to tackle online fraud and an expansion of facial-recognition technology.