It is being reported that Theresa May is due to announce a new reform of Policing today, that has the potential to impact on 43 Police Forces far more than last years Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act which introduced the role of Police and Crime Commissioners.

According to the report in the Telegraph, the plan is to oblige Chief Constables to deploy resources to meet concerns raised by a minimum of 5 local residents. Assuming that five neighbours can agree that there is a problem in a community, the police force will have no choice but to divert manpower from potentially vital issues and ensure that an action plan is drawn up to address their concerns. The sheer scale of this concept should terrify us all. If for example you are dialling 999 for a squad car to come to your property or business because of the activities of individuals on the premises, you would want to ensure that the needs of a few people across town who feel their neighbour is playing football in the wrong place was not given the same priority as your call. However on the face of these proposals, Chief Constables who are already working with constrained resources may find that their wish to respond in a timely manner to 999 calls, is being challenged by the volume of neighbourhood disputes being generated in certain parts of their patch.

With the advent of Police and Crime Commissioners, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the need to protect the operational independence of the police. Yet this latest proposal will actually place the operational control of the police, in the hands of groups of neighbours who are in dispute with one another or frustrated with people who park in front of their favourite view. In order to qualify as a Police and Crime Commissioner, individuals will need to attract votes from 10’s of 1000’s of people so that they can assume a role that will not directly impact on the operational decision making of the police, yet 5 residents are able to do this following a brief conversation over their adjoining garden walls.

The real concern in all of this is that the focus will discourage local residents from applying their own common sense and experience through networks such as Neighbourhood Watch and Streetwatch and instead of gathering together to consider what they can do to improve the neighbourhood, they will be inclined to check that there are 5 people in the room and then go online to call the police to account.

This populist approach should be delayed until the Police and Crime Commissioners have taken up their roles in November and then Theresa needs to raise this as a possible mechanism with these elected officials who may be inspired or may simply tell her to put it back into the drawer for another year.