The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has described the bureaucratic burden on his officers as “death by 1,000 paper cuts.”
Rowley told a joint summit of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on Wednesday: “Some of the officers I talked to are more worried about getting in trouble for not filling in forms correctly than they are confronting dangerous people on the streets.”
He also revealed that only 22 percent of the calls the Met received were about crimes and said he wanted to begin “pushing back” on demands on the police.
Rowley said his officers were sometimes unnecessarily being sent out to assist with welfare checks and to sit with people suffering mental health crises in hospitals.
Braverman Promises to ‘Take Scissors to Red Tape’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the summit she planned to “take the scissors to any red tape that gets in your way.”She said: “I am concerned that crime recording requirements can be seen as too complex and burdensome. I am committed to working with the police to see how recording can be simplified without compromising on putting victims first.”
Braverman said she wanted the police and the NHS to work better together so that “people in need of medical help get the right care at the right time, while also reducing inappropriate demand on policing.”
The Home Office has commissioned a review, by the former chief of Police Scotland, Sir Stephen House, of productivity in policing in England and Wales. House was acting commissioner of the Met after Cressida Dick resigned earlier this year.
The chairman of the NPCC, Martin Hewitt, said it was estimated around 1,200 police staff were employed in crime recording compliance last year, at an annual cost of £47 million.
Hewitt said: “There are various figures and estimates but I don’t think there is any doubt that over half of all calls for service we receive are something other than a crime.”
