About Me

I was also unprepared for how target driven Home Office policy would affect the approach to policing. Home Office targets spawned a culture and mindset which dictated the practices of officers, myself included. Statistics generated by detections became the new taskmaster.

Five detected crimes per month and I'd be considered a performing officer. This failed to take into account the tasks I carried out as part of my role which did not result in a detection, such as taking a missing person report, attending a sudden death or a traffic collision in addition to the daily jobs coming in on the radio and allocated investigations which I alone had to complete.

I found myself, along with colleagues, chasing quick and easy detections in order to get my tick in the box and appease my sergeants if I was to be considered a performing officer. Once I had reached my target for the month the pressure would be off me and I could then get back to real policing. Only at this point would detections be something generated during routine policing whereas before routine policing would be secondary in the hunt for detections. Whilst I recognise the need to detect crime, a distinction must be drawn.

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