A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
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in effect, the police regulator.<br />
Taking soundings after his appointment was<br />
announced, a senior police chief told me: “She has<br />
declared war on the <strong>Police</strong> Service – well on the Fed<br />
at least.”<br />
But he is wrong, because it looks like the war<br />
fizzled out be<strong>for</strong>e it began. Even on the thorny<br />
subject of the future of the police pension scheme,<br />
the <strong>Federation</strong> has conceded that it cannot secure a<br />
better deal than the one which will mean officers<br />
having to work far longer be<strong>for</strong>e collecting their<br />
pensions.<br />
That extraordinary march through London of<br />
some 30,000 off-duty officers was meant to be a<br />
call to arms, but it was strangely reminiscent of the<br />
miners’ marching behind their banners as they<br />
returned to work after losing the great strike of<br />
1984-5. Dignified but defeated.<br />
From where I sit, the service, having failed to<br />
implement change itself, is being <strong>for</strong>cibly changed.<br />
There may be tinkering around the edges, but there<br />
is no going back. Even if Labour wins the next<br />
election, it will adopt and implement the vast<br />
majority of the changes introduced by the Tories<br />
and by Tom Winsor.<br />
Some of that change is very necessary – not just<br />
in rank structures and pay grades, but in attitudes<br />
and cultures too. A senior officer told me a few<br />
years ago that cops were supposed to be reactionary<br />
because it was their job to uphold the status quo.<br />
But if society changes, then policing has to reflect<br />
that change. Society has become more diverse,<br />
institutions are becoming more transparent and<br />
accountable and all walks of life are becoming more<br />
professionalised.<br />
The police are not alone in finding that change<br />
uncom<strong>for</strong>table. My own “trade” as I still like to call<br />
it, is increasingly regarded as a profession. Virtually<br />
everyone coming into the national media today has<br />
“The service,<br />
having failed<br />
to implement<br />
change itself,<br />
is being <strong>for</strong>cibly<br />
changed.”<br />
Upholding the Queen’s Peace 91