ABSTRACT
A major reform of the police in England and Wales has just been announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett, in a government White Paper, Policing A New Century: A Blueprint For Reform. 1 The reform of the police is part of the government's modernising agenda for the public sector. One of the principles of public sector reform is to raise performance through a national framework of standards and accountability. The need for police reform according to the White Paper is due to increase in the fear of crime; to perceptions of poor police performance relating to detection and conviction rates, leading to low public confidence in the police? Upon further examination, each of these criteria provides weak grounds for establishing the need for reform. For example, according to the 2001 British Crime Survey 26 per cent of respondents considered that crime had risen, ·a lot', despite the fact that the survey had shown a fall of 12 per cent in the overall level of crime. There is therefore a gap between public perception and the real position. This is not new and was also a feature of the Victorian period, although public confidence was rather the opposite - that crime was falling! 3
Another present concern appears to be the need for improved performance in detection and conviction rates benchmarking against European and international standards, despite the acknowledgement that
'Europeanandinternationalcomparisonsareunreliablebecauseof differentdefinitions'.Likemaynot,thereforebebeingcomparedwith like.Currentstatisticsalsoindicatetheimpactofsuchfiguresonpublic perceptionsofthosebodiesentrustedwiththetaskofcrimepreventionand lawenforcement.Thus,forinstance,publicsatisfactionwiththepolicein EnglandandWaleswas66percentintheBritishCrimeSurvey(BCS) comparedtoaround70percentforinternationalcomparators.Yetsuch snapshotstatisticsprovidenoindicationoftrend,orwhetherthe comparisonreachedthelevelofbeingstatisticallysignificantlydifferent. Measuresofconfidenceshowednocomparisonwithotherprofessional groups.Whereasconfidenceinthepolicehasfallenfrom83percentof thoserespondingin1983ashaving'alotorfairamountofconfidence', downto54percentin1999,duringthesameperiod,confidencein parliamenthasdroppedfrom54percentto15percent."'TheWhitePaper hardlyseemstoprovideincontrovertibleevidenceoftheneedforradical reformofthepolice.Rather,themainthrustofthereformsistoimprove performancebymanagingdetectionandconvictionrateswithpublished leaguetablesofindividualpoliceforceperformance.
