Major police reforms to attract top talent
PRITI PATEL plans to launch a major reform of the police to tackle a lack of talent at the top.
It is understood the Home Secretary, who has already ploughed record funding into the service – recruiting 20,000 extra officers – now plans to bring in changes to how officers are promoted and trained.
She would like a structure where people can come in from other professions and industries, and move into management roles.
“We have to be in a position where we can have the best people running the police force,” a senior source said.
Ms Patel was criticised after reappointing Met Police chief Dame Cressida Dick for another two years following the completion of her initial five-year term.
But a source close to Ms Patel said: “The trouble was there was nobody else. If there had been an alternative, don’t you think we would have taken it?
“There was nobody better. There is a real issue of who is getting promoted in the police and how it is happening.”
The source added: “It is clear there has been no succession planning at the Metropolitan Police.”
However, Conservative backbenchers have not accepted the explanation and want Dame Cressida removed quickly.
A member of the influential Common Sense group said: “We have been told this same line in meetings with the Home Secretary but we just don’t believe it. Cressida
Dick has been a disaster and continues to be a disaster.
“It is hard to believe that there is nobody better to take over from her.”
Dame Cressida, reappointed last month, has recently come under fire for failures around the murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens.
Couzens had a number of roles within the Met, including guarding Parliament, which has led to the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, asking questions about how officers are vetted.
Prior to that, Dame Cressida’s failure to tackle the Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter protesters, while problems like knife crime have risen in the capital, have led to questions about her leadership.
Government sources have also raised questions about the size and dual roles of the Met Police, which polices London but also has national security duties as well as wider powers on tackling organised crime.
Changes could see it “split up into a London and national force”, according to one minister.
Plans on restructuring policing in the UK are expected to be published early next year.
Meanwhile, Ms Patel has backed a phone service aimed at protecting women as they walk home following the murder of Ms Everard.
BT chief executive Philip Jansen has proposed the emergency number be used to allow the vulnerable to have their journeys tracked and an alert triggered if they do not
reach home in time.