Officers tied to paperwork for incidents with no offenders

POLICE are being distracted from fighting violent crime by filling out forms for crimes that don’t exist, says the head of front-line officers in England and Wales.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, cited the case of two Hampshire officers sent to track down two drunks reportedly fighting in a park who had disappeared by the time they arrived. The officers then had to spend 20 minutes filling in a crime report and carry out a vulnerability assessment in case there were children who might have witnessed the incident.

“That’s 20 minutes completing paperwork for a job that is going nowhere, no offenders, no offences, no vulnerability,” he said.

“If this was one time a shift, that might be OK, but it might be six or 10 times. That’s where this process can get too much. We are keeping the pie chart people happy but it is not delivering policing. That’s where we have lost our way. We need to make sure data and crime recording is ethical and properly done, but the pendulum has swung too far.”

Simon Kempton, operational lead for the Police Federation, said the demand for collecting statistics and assessing vulnerability had steadily increased each year with new Home Office recording requirements reinforced by new IT systems.

One, introduced last year, required officers to fill out a 10-page form for use of force including what happened, where, whether officers were threatened, who was injured and where on their body. It could take more than 10 minutes in some forces to complete for each person arrested.

As an officer, he also now had to log incidents such as rubble on a road which might have been removed by a good Samaritan by the time he arrived.

“In the past, I would say it’s been removed, NFPA [no further police action],” he said. “Now, I will be sent a form on my mobile or desktop, and have to fill out empty boxes on who was the officer, when attended, the risk, it goes on and on and on.”