May criticises police over red tape

Theresa May said she was frustrated forces were failing to join her drive to free up more time for crime fighting.

Senior officers said Mrs May was being unfair as they claimed reducing bureaucracy was not as simple as “flicking a switch”.

Mrs May, launching a staunch defence of her wide-ranging police reforms, told chiefs “you can see we really mean business”.

“But here’s the problem – not all of you are following my lead,” Mrs May told a conference in Harrogate.

“Some of you are still setting your forces targets that we’ve scrapped nationally.”

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), told Mrs May there was “some lack of clarity” over her reforms, and that she was risking public safety.

But Mrs May responded by saying: “Sir Hugh, police reform should be a cause for optimism for police chiefs, not fear.”

Mrs May said she was ordering every organisation across the criminal justice system to stop wasting police time.

“All of this work is aimed at freeing your officers to fight crime,” she added.

“There is no question that I will always give the police the tools and powers they need to catch criminals, investigate crimes and protect the public.

“But as well as responding to events, we also have to act strategically to put British policing on a secure footing for a generation.”

Mrs May told reporters afterwards that “quite a number within the 43” forces were ignoring her instructions over bureaucracy.

But Chris Sims, the Acpo spokesman on bureaucracy, said her comments were unfair. He added: “It is a shared responsibility... It is not one where you flick a switch and bureaucracy goes away.”

Sir Hugh opened the conference by warning the impartial model of policing could be under threat. He said: “In such a huge and radical programme of reform it is hardly surprising there is some lack of clarity.

“Yet the potential impact of failure in any policing discipline is, by definition, likely to be very serious.”

Warning that police were facing one of the most challenging times in living memory, he added: “It may now appear sensible to give serious consideration to reviewing and taking stock on just how many loose ends, some of them critical to policing, remain before deciding on whether the overarching plan is achievable within the current time scales.

“Unless greater clarity emerges in the very near future, I fear that we run the risk of compromising the safety of citizens and damaging a service which has been at the forefront of protecting the public for so many years.”

Officers understand the Government’s determination for reform “but we cannot afford to get policing wrong and the risks are great”, he added.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper urged Mrs May to listen to Sir Hugh’s warnings. She said: “Hugh Orde is right to point out that the Home Secretary is reducing police numbers and police powers but increasing the risk of politicisation. This endangers the centuries-old tradition of impartiality, as well as the effectiveness of the police, and it is communities that will pay the price.”

Mrs May, wearing leopard print shoes at the conference, announced that a company owned and led by police chiefs will be set up to reform the “confused, fragmented and expensive” way in which forces use computer systems.

The firm will aim to cut the £1.2 billion annual spending on ICT and free chief constables from having to spend so much time addressing such issues.

She was then ushered to her car by Grahame Maxwell, the North Yorkshire chief constable who admitted gross misconduct over a police recruitment drive.