It is policing but not as we know it

BEXLEY has been chosen by the Home Office for a two-year pilot scheme which could change the face of policing.

The Government is pouring £2.5m into the project which aims to make more use of officers' skills and offer a better service to the public.

The possible downside, for some, is it will mean less police officers and more civilian staff.

Bexley is just one of a number of pilot schemes across the country, looking at different aspects of police work but it is the only one which is looking at a whole police division.

"We are looking at a police service which has 19th-century regulations to deal with 21st-century problems," explained borough commander Chief Superintendent Robin Merrett, the operational head of the scheme.

THE Control and Dispatch office deals with everything which means officers are being distracted away from more serious work by becoming bogged down in routine tasks.

It is proposed to put some of Bexley's Police Community Support Officers into police vehicles to take over the tasks which need to be done in person but not, necessarily, by a police officer.

These include jobs such as informing witnesses for court, checking the address of people in custody and picking up CCTV films.

He said the aims of the pilot were to improve frontline services to the public, improve police performance and to increase the visibility of the police and their accessibility to the public.

"I think all the ideas we are looking at are good ones. We are not taking any risks with Bexley," he promised.

The pilot will involve 13 projects which it is believed will dramatically achieve all three aims.

Officers and civilian staff have already taken part in a series of brainstorming sessions to find out how they do their jobs currently: what works well, what does not and what could be done to improve the job.

Project manager, acting Superintendent Wayne Chance, said: "We have got the scope to bring in a couple of new roles which do not exist anywhere else."

The changes will be independently evaluated over the second year of the pilot, probably by a top university.

It will look at whether the pilot has achieved its three aims and whether its ideas can be rolled out across London and the whole country.

Bexley will receive interim reports on progress during the evaluation. Even if not everything tried by Bexley is taken up elsewhere, Bexley will have the option to keep what works for it.

But when the two years ends, Bexley will have to pay for the changes from its own £18.5m budget. Chief Sup Int Merrett admits this will be done by reducing the number of police officers while increasing civilian jobs, which are less well paid.

WHEN someone is taken into custody at a police station, they are dealt with in the custody suite by the custody sergeant and a jailer, who looks after prisoners' welfare.

Bexley handles about 5,600 prisoners a year and currently, the sergeant does everything, from tasking prisoners' details, logging property, finger printing and arranging a solicitor, as well as other tasks.

And while he deals with one, any others are forced to wait inside police cars and vans in the police yard, taking police officers out of other work.

Bexley proposes to create a new post of designated detention officer who can take over some of the sergeant's tasks, such as DNA and drug testing and fingerprinting.

Prisoners being bailed to return to the station will also be dealt with separately from those being kept in custody.

Because of the potential for political capital to be made over such a move, he and his senior officers have embarked on a series of intensive briefings to explain exactly what they are doing.

"This is good stuff," Mr Merrett insisted. "It is about how we can modernise and reshape the police service."

If you are interested in applying for any of the new civilian jobs being created, call 020 8301 1212 and ask for the personnel department.

Investigations set to change

THE investigation of crime is where the most radical changes are proposed.

Currently, uniformed police respond to calls to the police and, depending on what they find at the scene, call in CID which assess the situation and make decisions on what needs to be done.

Officers then have to return to the station and can take up to 40 minutes inputting the crime details onto the computer system Bexley proposes to allocate a detective sergeant (DS) to each of its five rapid-response cars 24 hours a day, so an assessment can be made on the spot and the investigation started.

Officers will be able to call in from the scene to an inputter who will put the crime details onto the computer system.

At the moment, individual CID officers are each allocated crimes to investigate. It means if the officer is on holiday, attending court or on night duty, little or no work is done on the investigations.

BUILDING work to meet new disability access laws, which come into force in May, will also incorporate changes to create a new reception area at Bexleyheath police station.

At present there is no queuing system, nor indication of the waiting time to be seen. There is no separation between criminals and their victims either.

A new desk will staffed by a Police Community Support Officer during the day and a special constable at night, to evaluate the needs of each visitor and channel them to the appropriate person to be dealt with.

Anyone who calls the station and is asked to attend, will be given an appointment.

Plasma screens will give people all the information they need to know.

As a result, in Bexley it takes an average of 10 hours over 50 days to deal with a crime.

Bexley proposes, instead, to create four investigation teams, with a variety of expertise, who will deal with all crimes.

They will consist of one DS, two detective constables, two police constables and civilian investigators (mainly recruited from retired police officers), whose numbers will be expanded from the current six to 16.

It is aimed to reduce the average investigation time to two weeks.

In addition, Bexley has a number of squads dealing specifically with crimes such as burglary or car crime.

These will now be replaced by task forces whose job will be to target prolific offenders, not a particular type of crime.

Involving whole community in crime prevention

One police inspector's job will disappear under the pilot scheme and several new civilian posts will be created.

The role of the chief inspector in the criminal justice unit (CJU) will be replaced by a civilian manager.

There will be a new safety officer and occupational health advisor to improve the care of all staff and new training opportunities.

A community engagement manager will work closely with groups including Neighbourhood Watch and the schools' citizenship officer will work with schools to build citizenship and community safety into the school curriculum.

Meanwhile, a crime prevention design adviser will work in Bexley Council's planning office to advise people on how to include crime prevention in their plans for extensions or new homes.

The Safer Neighbourhoods teams will also adapt to link in with Bexley Council's areas of opportunity and include health, council and other workers all based in the same location.