Home Office outlines massive police shape-up.

By Lucia Miyashita

Plans to radically improve police forces with the help of a new national crime-fighting agency have been outlined today by the Home Secretary.

The organisation will replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and will focus on border policing and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).
People will also be able to elect police officials to oversee each police force in two years’ time.

The Home Office consultation paper, which was described by Home Secretary Theresa May as “the most radical reform of policing for 50 years,” also includes proposals for community volunteers and “crime fighters” to take part in joint patrols with local officers.

Reforms were called for after SOCA was heavily criticised last year for recovering just £1 from every £15 of public money spent.

Mrs. May told the Commons that the police had become “too bureaucratic, too much accountable to Whitehall, rather than to the people they are serving.”

While shadow home secretary Alan Johnson responded critically to the plans, labeling the proposal of elected commissioners an “unnecessary, unwanted and expensive diversion,” the Association of Chief Police Officers agreed it was time to make some changes.

President Sir Hugh Orde added: “That said, the reform must add real value to the critical service we deliver which keeps our communities safe.”

CEOP has welcomed plans to work closer with the police following the death of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall last November.

The girl was raped and murdered by Peter Chapman, 33, who posed as a teenage boy to befriend her on Facebook.
Ashleigh’s death fuelled a nation-wide debate on the efficiency of online safety measures and led to the inclusion of a ‘panic button’ on numerous social networking sites, allowing users to report abusive behavior directly to CEOP.

Hamish Brown MBE, a retired officer at New Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate, said it remains vital to have as many authorities as possible working together against online crime.

He said: “Even when officers are willing to help victims they are often not sufficiently equipped to do so, and both the CEOP and the police must recognise this gap in policing and act as a joint force.”

The reforms have even greater resonance following an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) this week, which found that 25-year-old Joanna Michael, stabbed to death by her former boyfriend last August, was failed by two police forces and the 999 system.

Call handlers at Gwent Police and South Wales Police now face disciplinary action for failing to intervene promptly when the victim called 999 minutes before the fatal attack.
IPCC Commissioner for Wales Tom Davies said: “Joanna was failed by two police forces at an organisational level with their policies, training and communication systems between the two forces.

“We desperately hope the IPCC recommendations are urgently acted upon by these police forces and others so that everything possible is done to prevent any further avoidable tragedies.”