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Tom Brake: Making the police more trusted, professional and effective

Sun, 11 Mar 2012

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference today endorsed Trusted, Professional and Effective: British Policing at its Best. It proposes a number of changes to police forces in England around three key areas, which will change the culture of police for the better:

• More trusted – listening to local people and making policing much more responsive to communities’ priorities.
• More professional – setting up the new police professional body with a key responsibility to recommend detailed national minimum recruitment standards for the police.
• More effective – making evidence based policing the defining feature of 21st century policing by establishing the world’s first Institute for Policing Excellence.

• Make Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) more accountable to the public between elections
• Create safeguards against the expansion of the role of PCCs
• Create an Institute for Policing Excellence
• Create a Police First development scheme based on the success of Teach First
• Encourage Police and Crime Panels to veto plans to cut police numbers unless all measures to cut bureaucracy have been exhausted.

“As an organisation, the police suffer from a lack of confidence and trust despite the fact that we have fantastic police officers who are dedicated, able and trying to do their best by the community they serve.

“Labour’s legislative assault on our civil liberties has been disastrous for the reputation of the police who enforced it. The Coalition Government is doing the right thing to undo the damage Labour did and restore public confidence.

“But we must do more. It is essential that we clear up Labour’s legacy and end people’s feeling that they are both over-policed and under-protected. Conference has today backed the Liberal Democrats’ vision on what is the right thing to do to restore public confidence in our police services.”