It was reported today that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) has been used over 400 times in the past two years by councils across the Black Country. RIPA was introduced to regulate investigations by public bodies (including covert surveillance, the use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources, interception of communications and the use of communications data); it is used by councils to investigate offences such as rogue trading, benefit cheating and flytipping. ABM’s software for managing covert operations and investigations is fully compliant with RIPA legislation. The full article can be read here.
-
-
UK WebsiteSitemap »
-
UK: +44 (0)115 977 6999
info@abmsoftware.com
-
-
- ABM's Crime and Investigation Blog
-
Archive for the ‘UK Police’ Category
“Better value for money in policing will be a challenge…”
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010“…but it is possible” – the words of Sir Dennis O’Connor as two reports on value for money in UK policing were published yesterday. HMIC’s report, Valuing the Police, found that only 11 percent of total police personnel are visible and available to the public at any one time and highlighted a need to improve shift patterns to more accurately match demand. It finds that too much time is increasingly spent on investigation and specialist functions while the number of police officers working in the community has fallen over the last four years.
A seperate report by the Audit Commission, HMIC and the Wales Audit Office, entitled “Sustaining value for money in the police service“, found that, crime has fallen by 45 percent since 1995, but this has been coupled with significant increases in police spending which has, according to the report, been poorly scrutinised and challenged.
The report shows that 80% of police spending is on the workforce which suggests that, if real cost and efficiency savings are to be made, police forces need to think carefully about the deployment of personnel resources, reducing unnecessary management and over-skilled back-office workers. The report goes on to challenge the police service to make savings of up to £1 billion (12% of current expenditure). £420m of this is accounted for through savings in procurement, back office, reducing overtime, workforce modernisation and reducing management overheads. But the report suggests that an additional £500m can be saved through productivity improvements - i.e. reducing the number of police officers or making them work harder… Whether such savings are truly achievable remains to be seen.
The Shape of Policing
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010The Chief Inspector of Constabulary this morning has published a report detailing what everyone else has been thinking these past weeks. The fact of the matter is that anything over a 12% cut in police funding cannot be achieved without re-engineering the way in which UK police is organised and functions. The reality is that over the last 10 years we have created a police service which has been dogged by bureaucracy, red tape and, at times, a risk averse approach. All of this, as in any organisation that suffers the same level of hand tying, results in increased costs and increased inefficiency.
Sir Dennis O’Connor is therefore right that we should now look at the whole picture in terms of UK policing structure and service and go back to basics in terms of delivering core services. One solution to the problem may well be an acceleration of merging territorial based policing within regions and moving more specialised services to the centre. Do I dare to say a return of the Regional Crime Squad in disguise..? At least under this model, the public get their territorial and local based service whilst major crime investigation and other specialised services are concentrated where it counts. The biggest hurdle to cross now is that of investment. The merger process and setting up of central service incurs significant investment against long term savings. The question is will there be political commitment to spend now and save later? The plot thickens and it may well not come to any conclusion until after the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in October where the real devastation by cuts may eventually be revealed.
Crime at lowest level for 29 years: but for how long?
Thursday, July 15th, 2010The latest British Crime Survey reveals that crime in England and Wales is at its lowest levels since 1981; but how long can this downward trend in crime last with talk of ‘budget cuts threatening 60,000 police jobs’? According to former Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tim Brain this is the number of police officer, civillian staff and community support officer posts that could be axed by 2015. Reducing bureaucracy and police collaboration/ regionalisation may allow more to be done with less to a certain extent but surely no-one can expect current levels of front-line policing to be maintained if this worst case scenario is realised.
Should Police be cut?
Thursday, July 8th, 2010A recent local government survey conducted across the public in the region, delivered some interesting results. As the Government has stated that the NHS and Overseas aid will be ring fenced in terms of funding and police, immigration, education etc. will be cut, the public have other opinions. The survey clearly published the public’s desire to see the NHS and Overseas aid cut and Police and Security ring fenced.
In some ways the public are the more intelligent reviewers of what is important to maintain social stability in times of austerity than the government and there are obvious concerns that crime will significantly increase and public order may become a problem. We have seen over the last week what is involved in tracking down a single dangerous individual in Northumbria and the man power and costs associated with this single incident will run in to the millions of pounds. Can the Government therefore justify a 25% cut in the budget of policing or should there be a review of the priorities and what is actually important in terms of maintaining public confidence through what we will be a torturous time in the UK ahead?
The Cutting Dilema
Friday, July 2nd, 2010There have been many reports recently of the potential for 25% cuts across the Home Office and Policing in the UK. But where should cuts be made and what is the impact?
The Home Secretary announced this week that the Government wish to protect frontline policing as a policy and through the cuts that need to be made there is a view that Frontline policing should even increase. So with this push for visibility of the police in the community, where can you cut?
Undoubtedly, the answer will be within areas of policing that conduct specialised tasks. There is no doubt that, with the Uniformed element of policing being somewhat protected, the axe will fall on those departments that have been looking at major crime, serious and organised crime, counter terrorism and other areas of specialised operations. John Yates of Scotland Yard has already warned of the threat posed by reducing the work being conducted on anti terrorist operations and no doubt that others will also cite areas of concern, such as serious and organised crime. It is still unfortunate that the true relationship between these specialised areas and the impact these have on communities is not fully appreciated. Reducing the effectiveness of these specialised areas will only have the impact of increasing issues in the community relating to drugs, violent crime, identity fraud and the myriad of other community based activities that go to funding these organisations. John Yates is also right in his assessment of the increased threat of terrorism. Terrorist organisations will be watching and looking for the weak points in countries where financial issues are reducing the state’s ability to respond.
So in conclusion, we have to be very careful where we focus cuts and make sure that we do not specifically focus on politically expedient areas such as frontline visibility. At the end of the day, the majority of the public are not particularly bothered as to whether they see a police officer on the beat or not. What they really care about is that an officer comes to their assistance quickly at that very rare time of most need.
42 per cent of cigarettes in north of England are illegal
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010The Scotsman has obtained figures from the tobacco industry which reveal significant increases in smuggling of illegal cigarettes. The article, published on Saturday, found that 31 per cent of packets in Scotland were illegal, up 10 per cent from 2009. The figures also show that the worst area in the UK is the north of England where 43 per cent were illegal, up 24 per cent. The Scotsman blames the cut in police staffing of Scotland’s west coast ports for the dramatic increase.
Speaking in 2008, Michael Prideaux, Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at British American Tobacco, estimated “the size of the global illicit trade in cigarettes to be approximately 390 billion sticks annually representing 6% of total world cigarette consumption. This denies worldwide governments approximately US$20 billion in annual tax revenue.”
SCDEA continues battle against serious crime
Monday, June 28th, 2010According to their 2009-10 annual report, the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency has seized 105 kilograms of Class A drugs and 1.6 tonnes of Class B drugs over the last 12 months, with a combined estimated street value of over £26m (GBP). This illustrates the scale of the drugs problem in Scotland but also shows the heroic work that SCDEA is doing to combat it. The report can be downloaded from SCDEA’s website: www.scdea.police.uk
A Time of Austerity
Friday, June 25th, 2010With the budget potentially hitting Government Departments hard from 2011, what is the impact on Policing? With the Home Office currently receiving a budget of £9.6bn per annum to fund Policing and Immigration/Customs services and the Police currently working with a budget of £5.6bn, a 25% reduction could have an impact of £1.4bn per annum. So what are the options? Some will initially spotlight the NPIA as a possible casualty with its role as policy writer, national systems supporter and training deliverer. There is no doubt that many will ask what the value of the organisation is with its current costs towards £0.5bn per annum. However, the support for core systems and some level of national training will have to lie somewhere so it’s not quite so easy for this current organisation to dissolve completely. There must however be questions over the viabiltiy of some its current initiatives including ISIS. A good policy to look towards standardisation, but can and will Forces be able to afford change?
IT does play a part in this scramble to save money and most should now look as to how proper and efficient use of IT save time and money for frontline officers, possibly enabling the reduction in required numbers over time. However, these sort of cuts require significant strategies and not just re-organising the deck chairs! It has to be time where the service reviews the provision of back office services, including IT, HR, Finance, Fleet Management etc. more radically than before and looks at utilising Shared/CLOUD/Third Party services to deliver these.
We are moving in to a new chapter of policing in the UK where the landscape of service provision to the public will change forever.
IT is more than a support service
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Computer Weekly have reported Jos Creese, president of Socitm, as saying that George Osborne’s emergency UK budget fails to take account of the potential efficiency savings that could be realised by better use of IT. Speaking on behalf of ICT professionals in the public sector, Creese is quoted as saying, “arguably, technology is the only ‘silver bullet’ in the armoury of the new government”.
-
- ABM BLOG
-
-
-
- PRODUCTS
-
- CONTACT US
-
To arrange an online demo please call the Sales Department:
Phone:
+44 (0)115 977 6999
Email:
info@abmsoftware.com
or fill in the Contact Form
- INTELLICASE
- Investigation Software
Helping organisations to record incidents, manage intelligence and build case files to protect assets, people & reputation.
- ABMPEGASUS
- Source Management Software
Helping police to manage Confidential Informants, communications data, surveillance and witness protection.
