|
|
 |
| |
 Chief Superintendent Mark Heath |
‘Them and us’ police are failing to tackle robbery and burglary
Inspectors criticise officers’ performance as top cop hits back over report
A “THEM and us” culture and too little time to spend with victims of crime contributed to low morale among officers as Camden police failed almost all its performance targets last year, according to a major report released on Tuesday.
The report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), who visits borough forces every five years, follows a root and branch inspection of every aspect of Camden’s policing and provides a rare insight into the views of front-line officers through anonymous surveys.
Although it acknowledges the challenges posed by Camden’s size and diversity and pays tribute to the “outstanding” role played by Camden officers following the July 7 bombings in 2005, it describes performance at the time of the inspection in June 2007 as “not strong”, highlighting failures to either reduce crime or catch criminals in key areas like robbery, burglary, and vehicle crime.
While it praised the successful implementation of Safer Neighbourhoods – the Met-wide project returning bobbies to the beat – and the decision to staff it with experienced officers, it highlighted grave concerns about the morale and inexperience of officers in other departments.
“Staff in general felt that with the exception of Safer Neighbourhood Teams, the effectiveness of operational areas service delivery depended on inexperienced staff led by inexperienced supervisors, leaving very junior staff exposed and vulnerable to risk through no fault of their own,” read one entry by the inspectorate.
Teams that respond to calls from the public complained that they had “insufficient opportunity to spend time with witnesses/victims or resolve and report incidents or investigate crimes appropriately.”
Although some uniformed departments came in for particular praise – the Licensing Team was described as “an example of excellent practice” – the biggest concerns were in CID among detectives charged with solving and preventing the most serious crimes.
“There is a generally low level of morale among the CID business group who regard themselves as the engine room for performance, yet under-resourced with no proactive capability and little support,” it concluded, commenting on a mass exodus by experienced detectives.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Camden borough commander Chief Superintendent Mark Heath (pictured) said that dramatic improvements in performance since the inspection showed that morale and management were both on track.
Pointing to the fact that the report identified 120 “areas of strength” as well as 52 “areas for improvement”, he said: “Performance-wise we are cooking on gas at the moment. The HMIC report recognises why we had a tough year last year, and it recognises that we had things in place ready to crack on this year. In 2004, I wanted to reduce from 50,000 crimes to 40,000 crimes in three years – if it stays as it is at the moment, at the end of the year we’ll have about 39,000 crimes – that is a hefty reduction in that time.”
CID chief Detective Superintendent Jeremy Burton, who joined Camden the week of the inspection, said the problems among detectives had been resolved and he had concentrated on improving relations with uniformed colleagues.
He said “I’ve introduced a lot of changes in CID and I believe morale has improved or remained stable.” |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
