IT’S the partnership part of crime-reduction partnerships that causes trouble. Police officers get annoyed by the length of time it takes council staff to make decisions; local authority representatives can get caught out by just how fast police forces can make things happen, Local Government Chronicle (Sept 7) says.
Michael Baxter, the Chief Constable of Cumbria, says that the problem stems from the system. “Even if (councils) do send the right person (to meetings), they don’t have the delegated decision-making authority that other people have. They constantly say‘we’ll have to take that back and get agreement’,” he says.
But the police can cause aggravation as well as experience it, he admits. “Others get frustrated with us wanting to leap into activity, whereas they want to take time and be reflective.”
Failing to recognise this cultural clash can create awkward situations. A district council with unitary ambitions found this out first hand
when it asked the local commander to reorganise police beats to reflect its boundaries and boost its unitary aims. However, they hadn’t been prepared for the speed of the police response, which meant that the reorganisation occurredbefore the district council had got around to talking about the idea with the county council.
Advertisement
LGC’s advice for councils working with police includes: