ANY return to police targets in exchange for more officers will heap yet more pressure on the service, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.<\/p>\n
One of the Government\u2019s highest-profile election pledges was to recruit 20,000 extra police officers.<\/p>\n
But some Chief Constables fear it could come with a return to targets being imposed.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable Bill Skelly warned the Government was \u201cgoing down the road of targets\u201d, which would create \u201cunintended\u201d consequences.<\/p>\n
And it is not a road that South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent wants to venture down.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cTargets are very dangerous things. If you give officers targets, you put them under pressure to make decisions that they wouldn\u2019t otherwise make. If you look at stop\/search, you get officers going out potentially searching people for the wrong reason, which obviously we would never want our officers to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am absolutely against the target culture. We\u2019ve already got bureaucracy with HMICFRS, and we\u2019re assessed against what we do and what we don\u2019t do, so we don\u2019t need any more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve is concerned that introducing targets would skew officers\u2019 judgement and that it could potentially undo a lot of work gone into making the force more transparent.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cOfficers would feel unduly pressured. It sometimes creeps in with a bit of misguided mismanagement today when you get officers expected to make so many arrests or so many stop\/searches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes away the officer\u2019s discretion and common sense of the situation. Bringing in a target culture could just completely damage any kind of relationships we have [in communities].<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you give officers increased numbers out there and officers actually have time to go and proactively look for stuff, they will find it. So naturally, stop\/searches and arrests will rise for carrying weapons, as we\u2019ve seen with the Met.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that has to be a natural process; it can\u2019t be enforced by targets. Officers are under enough pressure as it is, I would absolutely oppose targets as a red line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve is not convinced the promised extra 20,000 officers will have the big impact the Government wants either.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cAll they\u2019re doing by giving us the extra 20,000, which I\u2019m grateful for, is repairing the damage that\u2019s already been done and getting us back to actually where we need to be to operate properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless they\u2019re going to put another 20,000 in on top of that, I don\u2019t think they can necessarily expect the type of utterly drastic changes that they\u2019re going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n