Our officers deserve praise for working as hard as they can

THE Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has called for praise for his members who are “working as hard as they can” – as the force received a negative report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Neil Bowles (pictured) also said the HMIC – which in February produced/published three reports on policing in less than three weeks – was taking up too much of the force’s time.

And that officers – who are having to deal with having 500 fewer colleagues than in 2009 – are not happy at continuous critical judgements.

In HMIC’s Police Effectiveness reports, the force was judged good at preventing crime and anti-social behaviour and tackling serious and organised crime – but was warned it needs to improve the way it manages offenders and investigates crime.

Overall it was rated as ‘requiring improvement’ at keeping people safe and reducing crime.

Mr Bowles said: “The HMIC do not bring any money, they say, ‘Oh look, we’ll give you 10 recommendations’, they don’t give us any money to make those recommendations work, it’s got to come out of somewhere else.

“It’s getting ridiculous. Let’s just have one report, let’s have feedback about where we could improve and where we’re doing well, that’s all we require.”

He concluded: “Let’s have some praise for our officers. The only reason some performance has gone down is because we’ve got less officers to investigate crime.”

Deputy Chief Constable Dawn Copley said: “We welcome the feedback from HMIC, which concluded that effectiveness within the force requires improvement.

“This overall grade is made up of four areas – two of which were graded as ‘good’ and two which ‘require improvement’. This feedback will allow us to further improve and strengthen our services.

“Overall, HMIC recognise that the force works well to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour, and we have been successful in maximising the proportion of our staff on front line duties against a reducing workforce.

“The feedback about how effectively we tackle serious and organised crime, including the use of the full range of legal powers, is welcomed, as these matters affect all our communities.”