A major new agency designed to continue the process of reform in the police service will launch next year to combat the increasing sophistication and ever-changing nature of crime that continues to blight England and Wales.

Peter Neyroud – former chief constable of Thames Valley Police – detailed the role of the National Policing Improvement Agency (of which he is the new chief executive) at a recent Reliance Security Services-hosted seminar in Milton Keynes. Neyroud believes the key to the Agency’s success lies in making the police service flexible enough to respond to the demands of modern-day policing.

“There have been huge changes in society over the past 40 years,” said Neyroud, who highlighted the Reading murder of Mary-Anne Leneghan last year. Of the five perpetrators, none came from the Thames Valley region, three possessed dual nationality and one was a foreign former criminal. They also had links – mainly though drug dealing – with several other UK cities. It was what the police service describes as a Level 2 crime (one involving criminals who operate across police regional borders).

“No one force would have been able to pick these people up,” continued Neyroud. “It is cases like this that underline the need for reform, and for that process to be ongoing. Our aim is to have a national police approach that is delivered locally and is locally accountable.”

Also speaking at the event, Rick Naylor – president of the Superintendents’ Association – called for a greater role in policing the UK to be undertaken by the newly-regulated private security industry. As far as Naylor is concerned, duties such as “scenes of crime guarding” are “non-specialist” and could easily be “devolved to outside contractors.”

Source

SMT