THE Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has called for praise for his members who are \u201cworking as hard as they can\u201d \u2013 as the force received a negative report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.<\/p>\n
Neil Bowles (pictured) also said the HMIC \u2013 which in February produced\/published three reports on policing in less than three weeks \u2013 was taking up too much of the force\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
And that officers \u2013 who are having to deal with having 500 fewer colleagues than in 2009 \u2013 are not happy at continuous critical judgements.<\/p>\n
In HMIC\u2019s Police Effectiveness reports, the force was judged good at preventing crime and anti-social behaviour and tackling serious and organised crime \u2013 but was warned it needs to improve the way it manages offenders and investigates crime.<\/p>\n
Overall it was rated as \u2018requiring improvement\u2019 at keeping people safe and reducing crime.<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles said: \u201cThe HMIC do not bring any money, they say, \u2018Oh look, we\u2019ll give you 10\u00a0recommendations\u2019, they don\u2019t give us any money to make those recommendations work, it\u2019s got to come out of somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting ridiculous. Let\u2019s just have one report, let\u2019s have feedback about where we could improve and where we\u2019re doing well, that\u2019s all we require.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded: \u201cLet\u2019s have some praise for our officers. The only reason some performance has gone down is because we\u2019ve got less officers to investigate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Constable Dawn Copley said: \u201cWe welcome the feedback from HMIC, which concluded that effectiveness within the force requires improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis overall grade is made up of four areas \u2013 two of which were graded as \u2018good\u2019 and two which \u2018require improvement\u2019. This feedback will allow us to further improve and strengthen our services.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n