Press Release

Reference:  79/09  Date:  July 16, 2009

ACPO response to the David Blunkett report: 'A People’s Police Force'

ACPO vice-President Tim Hollis said:

“This report builds on the commitment of our police service to respond to the needs of local people and to focus on the crime and policing issues which they think are most important and are most worried about. As such it deals with issues which lie at the very heart of UK policing and is a timely and positive contribution to the debate leading into an expected white paper on policing later this year.

“There is a tension between delivering the most effective policing at neighbourhood and local authority level while also meeting demands for better collaboration across police forces at regional and national level to tackle the serious and strategic challenges of threats such as organised crime. Building on accountability in ways which strengthen local confidence in policing without constraining effective public protection at every level is crucial. ACPO will now consider the recommendations made to government in this report in detail.”

ends

NOTES FOR EDITORS;

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

• The ACPO Press Office can be contacted via 020 7084 8946/47/48 (office hours) or via 07803 903686 (out of office hours).

• The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is an independent, professionally led strategic body. In the public interest and, in equal and active partnership with Government and the Association of Police Authorities, ACPO leads and co-ordinates the direction and development of the police service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In times of national need ACPO, on behalf of all chief officers, coordinates the strategic policing response.

• ACPO’s 341 members are police officers of Assistant Chief Constable rank (Commanders in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police) and above, and senior police staff managers, in the 44 forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and other forces such as British Transport Police and States of Jersey Police.