In November PCC’S will be elected, this is a radical and completely different perspective to our traditional policing in this country for over a hundred years.

What is the current system of policing the police and managing their effectiveness and efficiency?

Briefly, The Chief Constable is ultimately responsible for the operational efficiency of the force and a group of people known as the Police Authority select the Chief Constable and provide oversight of the actions of the Chief and his/her team. The question of the diversity of top teams in terms of Female/ BME/ Gay etc is a subject for another discussion.  This has served us well and although not perfect, then as we can all appreciate nothing ever is and perhaps a previous criticism may have been that PA’s did not exercise the authority which was incumbent in them. I have personally trained lots of PA members and it constantly astounded me that when I said that they could sack a Chief Constable this fact often received the retort, Yes but we’d never do that.

Why the change? My understanding is that the coalition want to engage the community and let them feel that they have a stake in the running of their police service and what better way than to elect the person to provide an oversight of individual forces.

I believe this is fundamentally flawed.

Sir Robert Peel laid out nine fundamental principles on which our police service was born and are still relevant today. They are summarised as:-

Prevent Crime and Disorder with the consent and co-operation of the public which may diminish when excessive force is used.

The police act impartially and physical force is only used when persuasion, advice and warning is insufficient.

The police remain citizens and are paid to pay full time attention to duties which are incumbent on all citizens to maintain community welfare and existence.

The police must never usurp the judiciary in their actions and the test of effectiveness and efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder not police action.

These things are enshrined in Case Law.

” I hold it to be the duty of the Commissioner of Police, as it is to every Chief Constable  to enforce the law of the land.He must take steps to post his men that crimes may be detected and that honest citizens may go about their affairs in peace.He must decide whether or not suspected persons are to be prosecuted and if need be bring the prosecution or see that it is brought, but in all these things he is the servant of no-one save the law itself. No minister of the crown can tell him that he must or must not keep observation on this place or that or that he must or must not prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any Police Authority tell him so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the law and the law alone.

(R v Metropolitan Police Commissioner at 769 ) Police Federation website.

We now have the situation which will happen in November this year and is anathema to impartial policing, of individuals allied to political parties having authority and governance over Chief Constables and Commissioners. The amelioration of political alliances which was achieved by the old Police Authority will now be in the hands of one person who will hold direct sway over the person who manages the operational effectiveness and efficiency of our local police service. In the same way that the Mayor of London managed to traduce Ian Blair and cause his resignation almost without recourse to the rest of the authority, this will be replicated throughout the country. (Whether you agreed with Blair or not his operational autonomy should have remained paramount and it’s the Authority’s job to manage him) 

ACPO are saying nothing to remonstrate against this change publicly and politicians are rubbing their hands with glee because for so long they have wanted this opportunity to politically influence the service in favour of their political aspirations and re-electability.

The turnout is fully expected to be very low for this poll and so we will be in the unenviable position of having politicians being elected with a lower mandate than they get to enter parliament dragging our service from pillar to post on each new political fad, in the inevitable name of the “people”. 

Lastly, there are over 40 Police Forces and each PCC costs over GBP50K p.a. This may be less than the cost of a police authority, I do not have the figures and would welcome a response, however it is still very expensive and the quality of candidates has not been of the best and I question the motives of some candidates such as John Prescott a Lord of the Realm applying to be a PCC. Why? Why? Why?

Perhaps you maybe able to tell me because the rhetoric just does not ring true.

In conclusion.

The case has not been made out to change other than political expediency.

The cost is too high.

The candidates are not of the appropriate calibre to modernise and innovate our service in the face of the extreme austerity change occurring.

This has not been approved by a formal Royal Commission but by an unelected coalition government. 

The Police Authorities can be improved to the point where this is unnecessary and I note recent improvements where Police Authorities are belatedly being far more robust with Chief Constables and disciplining  more effectively.

I am travelling abroad with work this week to quite a dangerous place and so felt it was expedient to put something in writing.

An Epistle to my Children 2012 pdf

I have now been retired from the British Army for longer than I served in it. 22 years later and almost 30 years on from the operational duty that I served in(Op-Corporate) otherwise known as the operation to recapture the Falkland Islands, my memories don’t fade but become more poignant and sad. I am unable to say why or what it means but I dread the onset of this week of remembrance,I dread the the crisp clear air which always seem to prevail on the Sunday morning when all these old and now young servicemen, servicewomen and the comrades I do not know but feel a huge affinity with, troop off to various services to “remember”.

Locked up often in our own thoughts,unable to explain to anyone the feelings of melancholy and sadness juxtaposed with pride and belonging.Not to Queen and Country but to each other,because none of those things even enter one’s mind when in the thick of it except each other and the kinship that we all feel even when we can’t stand each other in peacetime surroundings.

So once again this year comes the dread. I will walk my dog Dave to the village cenotaph arriving at 3 or 4 minutes to the appointed hour. I will not wear a poppy or speak to the other people there and at 2 minutes past the hour having waited for the last post and seen in my mind’s eye the cemetary at San Carlos where my pal is buried and which will remain a part of England forever, troop off to the local pub and toast the memory of a good life wasted and all the other good lives wasted, for what?

In a few years another phalanx of bright young things fresh from some university or another and now elected to lead us into our brave new world will send more young people off to the slaughter so we can continue to “remember” and another generation will stand in sombre thought remembering their pals.

And in their minds eye it is impossible for them to grow old,for that’s how they were when we knew them, but wouldn’t it have been nice to have the opportunity to grow old with our comrades.

Shame on us all.

Personal Ethics is now the most  prominent aspect of leadership for all,not just those who are hierarchically influential but all people who profess to be leaders and in that I include, parents,teachers,social leaders, politicians, business entrepreneurs and actually any individual who “impacts or influences another person” (Ferguson,The  Living Leader 2006).

The social media now affords any person the opportunity to question those who lead, quite rightly in my opinion and makes it difficult for anyone in public life to hide their indiscretions from those they lead. Ethics will come more and more to the fore, whoever you are and are ambitiously seeking to further one’s own career in whatever field of our new agora.Many in power are unsure how to deal with this new phenomenen, let us be sure that the old ways of doing things has now passed and “emotionally intelligent leadership” based on self awareness,self management,social awareness and maintaining effective relationships is paramount in order to be successful in the modern global information age. 

Hence the questioning of established practices  afforded by the revelations of #wikileaks, # MP’s expenses, #hackgate, #Arab Spring,# UK-Saudi bribes, #Werrity-Liam Fox and #The Monarchy’s slipshod dealings with the country’s minority groups. No longer can the institutions hide from us the truth.

A new ethical age is upon us all.

The Ethical Dimension of Personal Leadershipv2

The Ethical Dimension of Personal Leadership

For a fuller description and explanation of this model contact www.2bld.co.uk

Walking with Dave who went into the fields near the river and eventually found a rat esconced under the turned over soil foraging for wheat stubble.The more I became involved in looking for this rat the higher my bloodlust and excitement became until we seemed to working together almost unspoken to locate and kill the rat.

When the rat jumped out of the hole Dave and I chased it to it’s inevitable death.The thrill and intensity of the hunt was indescribable. I really enjoyed it and then when it was over asked myself why?

There is no answer but Dave and I have been ratting since very successfully and I will continue to do so even though I am intensely against the killing of any sentient being.

So, I am still pondering this phenomenen.

Answers on a postcard please.

So now 2 weeks later having pondered on this phenomenon I have come to some philosophical conclusions.

Between us we have now killed some 9 rats and the excitement doesn’t diminish for either of us, but what does this all mean.

Several philosophical questions come to mind.

As I said before I am not a bloodsports person and abhor killing,this maybe because of my operational Army service or perhaps I never really did and am certainly against capital punishment and any harm coming to all sentient beings. However, I feel no great loss as to the rats demise and having discussed it was generally praised for Dave’s actions by local people.Yet rats play a role in our ecological environment and in fact have a indispensable use within the animal kingdom.

So this personal conundrum is interesting in that:-

1. I feel no guilt killing rats

2.or vicariously using Dave to do it

3.or the excitement that it generates and which I wish to actively continue to pursue. 

Therefore, is it because I am questioning it within myself  that this relates to my heightened self awareness and can I then relate that into my personal leadership style.I have come to this conclusion.

If only we would all reflect and question our actions and how they relate to our personal values even for what may seem to be the most innocuous things, where might that take us as individuals in our lives and the impact we have on others.

Why did I seek affirmation from others if I innately knew that what I was doing was wrong?

And so this is the constant question we should be asking ourselves about all our behaviours and I believe it is,

“Where does my self interest lay in what I am about to do??

It’s a “BIGGY” isn’t it but where might it takes us as individual human beings and subsequently as leaders?