Labour's Legacy to the Police

According to a report from the think-tank Civitas, The Institute for the Study of Civil Society,

Police officers are being forced to target people for misdemeanours so they can meet government targets,

The report also says

Political interference meant incidents that might previously have been regarded as innocuous were now treated as crimes. Police performance is measured in "sanction detections", which means officers have detected or cleared a case by charging someone, issuing a penalty notice or giving a caution.

It continues on with the following

"In order to meet targets police are now classifying incidents as crimes that would previously have been dealt with informally, classified differently or ignored."

One officer said he warned his own teenage son to take extra care at the end of the month when police were looking to fill their detection quota.

Another said: "We are bringing more and more people to justice but they are the wrong people."

Complaints against the police have risen and much of the increase comes from law-abiding people who no longer feel the police are on their side, the report said.

It called for an end to targets and proposed a local tax to pay for policing, with commanders selected through local government or direct elections.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This is an indictment of Labour's ­target-driven culture."

This is Labour's Legacy from the past 11 years of interfering in the Police Service. Targets, Targets and yet more Targets but little in the way of results. None of this report will shock or be news to most people but the public is now beginning to lose faith in the Police, this must not be allowed to continue.

This is the problem with Labour they keep going for the targets and style rather the substance and actions. They have now been caught out too many times and the public have become wise to their inadequacies.

'Police putting targets ahead of serving public' - Telegraph: "Civitas"