Non-Subscriber Extract
Follow my lead
- Article Tools
| 18 May 2006 |
By Claire Haynes
Sir Keith Povey is a former HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary and retired from the post in February 2005.
He says chiefs need to be open and transparent when communicating with their forces over the mergers. "Keep the organisation as fully involved as possible," he advises. "The biggest issue is communication. It is also about how the chief positions himself or herself to face the changes. There are some real challenges that lie ahead, most chiefs are embracing the change."
Sir Keith says chiefs need to concentrate on expressing the reasons for mergers.
"It is not about dumping all that has gone before, it is keeping the best.
"People have to be the priority, as well as making sure that all members of the organisation are fully informed of what is happening, why it is happening and how it is going to be better."
Avoiding politics
Sir David Phillips, former head of Centrex's National Centre for Policing Excellence, says chief constables should not concentrate on the political agenda and 'what looks pretty' when laying out the formation of new forces.
He says: "There is a huge amount of danger that people will get involved in political and social agendas that seem to dominate policing at the expense of not gripping the real assets of policing and bringing them to deal with crime and disorder.
"What I see is forces sacrificing the intelligence-led approach to priority policing styles that are popular at the expense of creating a police force effective at fighting crime and maintaining public order."
256 of 1,708 words