This post was inspired by a recent BBC TV programme, Police Under Pressure, which focussed on the effect of UK government spending cuts on the effectiveness of the country's police force and specifically in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. It was a two-part documentary and I watched the second part, which dealt with the need to improve crime-reduction performance, notably in the areas of burglaries and car thefts. It was a classic case of you've got less funding and resources but at the same time we want you to improve your performance!
I know Britain has social problems and the portrayal of East Sheffield highlighted how bad some of the UK's cities are, particularly the high rate of robberies. Clearly, it must be very unsettling, or indeed distressing, for law-abiding citizens to be ever fearful of having their homes burgled or cars stolen. So given the budget cuts imposed on the South Yorkshire Police force, the possibility of increasing day and night patrols, which might ease the problem, is clearly not an option worthy of consideration. So what's the solution? Well the subtitle of the programme was 'More for Less'. Great words and I've come across them many times in my long career in industry, although that didn't include working for the police.
Performance targets, collective and individual, are seen as a way of measuring and improving key performance parameters. The measurements can be very simple. For example, football team A scored 4 goals per match last season, whereas football team B score 2 goals per match. However, team A's win rate was 50%, whereas B's was 70%! Now there's a dilemma because scoring more goals does not necessarily mean winning more matches. That's one of the dangers of performance targets, they cannot be viewed in isolation.
Returning to the documentary on South Yorkshire Police, what really came home to me was the obsession by the senior management on targets per se. There were scenes of senior officers, with smart uniforms and plenty of pips on their shoulders, pouring over charts and spreadsheets, looking for improvements in their crime figures. Management clichés were in abundance - "thinking out of the box", "targets are challenging and aspirational", "green shoots of improvement"........bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! When things were not going as well as hoped, the Chief's decision was to go for even tougher targets! At the same time, the guys at the front line were being run-ragged and forced to work longer hours because of staff cuts. Surely when times are tough, the senior managers' time would be better spent out on the streets rather than discussing performance targets........all hands to the pump!
There was, not surprisingly, some criticism of the programme notably from senior Tories, who pointed out that crime had fallen since 2010, both nationally and in South Yorkshire. By the way, 2010 was the year of the last general election when the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition took over the reigns from the previous Labour government! Well the Tories' comment, together with the 'improvement' actions taken by the senior officers in South Yorkshire Police, indicate to me the sheer naivety of those responsible for ruling and policing the UK. The East Sheffield community, like any other diverse population, is a very complex societal system. It exhibits the behaviour of complex systems, which includes the fact that there is often a considerable time lag between cause and effect. So the fact that crime has fallen since 2010 might be as a result of actions that were taken by the previous government before 2010! I am apolitical, I don't have much time for politicians or the political system, so I am certainly not trying to make a political point. What I am convinced of, however, is that the type of target-driven actions that appear to be taken in the UK's police forces will not show immediate results and the outcomes (harmful or beneficial, but in my view the former) are unlikely to be felt for many years to come.
Don't let targets take over from common sense and remember, it's easier to count the bottles than to describe the quality of the wine!
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