Police: Performance Indicator Management

Lord Condon Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Condon]

My Lords, I am not sure how I follow that, but I will do my best.

I thank the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, for raising this important issue and I am sure that he will not be surprised if I do not buy entirely into his rather pejorative view of modern policing. Even though I am 13 years into retirement, I still believe passionately that the vast majority of police officers are honest, decent people doing a very good job. I declare my registered interest in policing and as a former police commissioner.

Performance management is vital in the public and private sectors, both of which I have worked in for the past 40 years. Performance management drives improvement, can provide transparency and comparability, and ultimately assists accountability. However, I agree with others that for too long reported crime figures have been overrelied upon as the most important police performance measure, despite their fragility as a true reflection of crime levels and their vulnerability to manipulation and massaging by rogue police officers. Others have spoken about that.

Many years ago, as a young and new Chief Constable of Kent Police, I tried to broaden the basket of police performance measures beyond the traditional crime figures. After wide consultation with the public in Kent, three additional measures were regularly published by my force: first, on the police response to emergency calls; secondly, on visible and reassuring police presence and availability on the streets; and, thirdly, on overall public satisfaction with Kent Police. That force became the first and only police service to be awarded a Citizen’s Charter for its overall service to the public, and I think that that was partly because we did not overrely on crime statistics.

Reported crime in recent years, however, has fallen throughout the developed world. Despite wide variations in police resources, methods and accountability, there has been a relentless fall in reported crime in all the major developed countries. Why has crime fallen? Policy, police and government issues have clearly helped, but I firmly believe that the main reason is the significant advances in technology and product development that have dramatically changed the volume and patterns of theft. For example, new cars are now very difficult, if not almost impossible, to steal. Pin numbers and other anti-theft characteristics have dramatically reduced the motivation to steal electronic goods. If you cannot use or sell an item you have stolen, what is the point of stealing it? The volume crime of theft has dropped dramatically throughout the developed world.

Similarly, and even slightly frivolously, there is scientific speculation that the removal of tetraethyl lead from petrol and the consequential reduction of harmful pollution to babies has led 20 years later to reductions in violent crime levels in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and West Germany. There are very strong correlations between improvements by not using lead in petrol and dramatic reductions in violent crime.

Moving on to police manipulation, the perhaps understandable but flawed overreliance on crime figures has also led to the manipulation and massaging of crime figures by some rogue police officers. During my first few weeks as Chief Constable of Kent, I had to deal with a major discipline case involving Kent detectives who had been visiting convicted burglars in prison. Through various inducements such as taking them out for the day, letting them meet their girlfriends and extra cigarettes, the detectives got them to admit to crimes they had not committed, thus fraudulently improving the Kent crime detection figures.

There is an overreliance on crime figures with not enough being done to prevent fraudulent behaviour. What should be done to improve the situation? I think that the Government have already taken some important steps, including the transfer of responsibility for the independent reporting of national crime statistics to the Office for National Statistics. That is vitally important. Improvements have been announced to the British Crime Survey. Transparency through making changes to the collection of crime statistics is, as I say, very important. I also welcome the statement by the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice earlier this month about changes to police recording practices and how crime will be recorded. Some of those changes will come into effect from April of this year, with others to follow in April next year.

In conclusion, it is vitally important for all stakeholders in this arena to acknowledge the strengths, limitations and frailties of recorded crime statistics. Crime figures must not be the only significant proxy for police efficiency. Of course good policing and intelligence-led policing help to reduce crime, while equally, bad policing and confused priorities allow crime to flourish. However, reported crime is only a part, albeit a vital part, of measuring police performance. It does, has not, and will never provide the full picture. ACPO, the inspectorate, the Home Office and now the new police and crime commissioners must accept the limitations of crime figures, and they must give clear and unambiguous signals that only the highest ethical standards are acceptable in recording crime and detection figures. They must be ruthless in dealing with malpractice by rogue police officers, whatever the motivation for corrupting crime figures. It is wrong, however they try to justify it, such as by using the euphemism of “noble cause corruption”. These abuses must be exposed and dealt with.

I am confident that the Minister will be able to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to improving standards in this area and that, with the support of the police service, further improvements will be made. This is a vital area which impacts on public confidence in policing.