- Conference
- 2014 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 13 June 2014
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
The ‘Peelian principles’ describe the philosophy that Sir Robert Peel developed to define an ethical police force. This philosophy is commonly known as policing by consent.
In the British model of policing, police officers are citizens in uniform. They exercise their powers to police their fellow citizens with the implicit consent of their fellow citizens.
However, Policing by consent is in danger of being replaced by Policing by Performance Standards.
In the rush downhill to appease politicians and justify ever decreasing budgets, the Police are directed to target specific groups to obtain the performance figures required by those in power.
These statistics are moulded to achieve political aims – downward spirals in specific areas of crime are fated whilst overall trends are masked.
Evidence that officers are now tasked with fulfilling their statistical data targets rather than actual police work in their communities is highlighted by the increase in direct measures, moving the recording goalposts to suit political ends.
The will of communities is being put into second place behind the careers of politicians and senior officers.
The 9th Peelan Principle states:
To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.
This conference calls on the Police and Justice Service Group Executive (SGE) to
1)Write to the Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales and the Scottish Police Authority to ask for them to revisit the need for Performance and Statistical Information in its current format and to put the needs of citizens before those of politicians.
2)Actively encourage branches to question Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC’s), Police Authorities and Chief Constables reliance on statistical returns rather than positive citizen outcomes and report the results to the SGE.