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In an article about the red tape that hampers the police, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that one superintendent stated that he could sign one piece of paper to authorise someone to be shot, but that he had to fill in a 16-page form for someone to look through a window to keep watch on a suspect.
This is only one of a series of examples of the pointless and unnecessary paperwork required to be completed by harassed police officers which is contained in a report to be published by the government this week. Not surprisingly, the Police Minister has said, ‘The police must be crime fighters, not form writers’.
I know from my own work in the past the amount of paperwork involved in police stations and, though a new computer system was introduced some years ago, it did not lessen the sheer volume of paperwork resulting from the most trivial of offences. Detailed records of crimes and those who have committed them have to be sighted and signed off by senior officers at various stages and, although this can sometimes be done electronically, paper copies of records still have to be run off.
All sections of society are going to be affected by the forthcoming budget cuts but, insofar as the police are concerned, a major effort should be made to cut their paperwork and release police officers to fight crime.
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In an article about the red tape that hampers the police, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that one superintendent stated that he could sign one piece of paper to authorise someone to be shot, but that he had to fill in a 16-page form for someone to look through a window to keep watch on a suspect.
This is only one of a series of examples of the pointless and unnecessary paperwork required to be completed by harassed police officers which is contained in a report to be published by the government this week. Not surprisingly, the Police Minister has said, ‘The police must be crime fighters, not form writers’.
I know from my own work in the past the amount of paperwork involved in police stations and, though a new computer system was introduced some years ago, it did not lessen the sheer volume of paperwork resulting from the most trivial of offences. Detailed records of crimes and those who have committed them have to be sighted and signed off by senior officers at various stages and, although this can sometimes be done electronically, paper copies of records still have to be run off.
All sections of society are going to be affected by the forthcoming budget cuts but, insofar as the police are concerned, a major effort should be made to cut their paperwork and release police officers to fight crime.
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