Spare the coppers
Sir: Without wishing to become embroiled in any debate about 'government support for the police', may I make one or two points about Simon Heifer's article (`The Force is not with the Tories', 18 May)? It contains some interesting thoughts, with some of which we would agree. However, Mr Heifer falls into the all too familiar trap of assessing police perform- ance purely on the basis of reported crime statistics. Crime is certainly important but, quite apart from the danger of relying too much on bald statistics, he overlooks the many other areas of police work which the
LETTERS
public rightly expect to be carried out. Traffic — we receive just as much pressure for more action on road safety, parking, speeding and the like as we do for more action on crime. Public order, terrorism, and a whole range of social service type issues (none of which are reflected in fig- ures of crimes reported or cleared up) take up much more of our time than does criminal investigation. Any assessment of police performance must take the whole of our work into account.
I would also observe that the questions of shift system working and supervision of sick leave are currently already under review from within the police service, as a result of police initiatives which are not merely a response to government or to parliamentary interest. Indeed, the alleged wholesale 'abuse of sick leave' is not borne out by the facts supplied to the Home Affairs Committee.
In general, as Mr Heifer says, we are more willing than most bodies to take blame on ourselves, but we do wish debate on policing to take into account a wide range of factors, to reflect the wide range of our responsibilities.
David Owen
Association of Chief Police Officers, North Wales Police Headquarters, Glan-y-Don, Colwyn Bay, Clwyd
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