Braverman vows to slash hundreds of hours of police admin
Tory MP Lee Anderson clashes with Met Police Commissioner
Suella Braverman has vowed to get more police officers pounding the nation’s streets as part of her “common sense” approach to tackling crime. The Home Secretary pledged to save bobbies hundreds of thousands of hours by slashing the amount of “unnecessary” admin they do behind desks.
She also committed to clamping down on rogue officers by ensuring “swift action” to weed out those who betray the public’s trust.
Writing in the Express, she said: “It really matters to decent officers – as well as to the public – that everyone who works for the police can be trusted.
“Anyone who is not fit to wear the uniform must never do so, and swift action must be taken where an officer falls short of the standards expected of them.
“I am also going to save hundreds of thousands of hours of police time by reducing unnecessary paperwork – getting more boots on the ground instead.
“The police have the full backing of this government and with more of them than ever before, it’s bad news for criminals and good news for the law-abiding majority.”
More than 20,000 new police officers have been hired in England and Wales, meeting a 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge.
The total number of police officers recruited since the last election is 20,951 bringing the total number to 149,572 in England and Wales, the Home Office confirmed today.
The Metropolitan Police was the only one of 43 forces to have missed its target by 1,000.
In a Westminster speech following the announcement, Ms Braverman said: “The public wants to see more bobbies on the beat and so do I. It is central to common sense policing.”
She added: “When police chiefs spend taxpayers’ money that could have been spent fighting crime on diversity training that promotes contested ideology like critical race theory, the reputation of policing as an institution is damaged in the eyes of the public.
“Some forces have equality teams that have completely abandoned impartiality in favour of taking partisan positions, sometimes even engaging in political argument on Twitter.
“The perception that some police are more interested in virtue signalling, or in protecting the interests of a radical minority engaged in criminality than they are protecting the rights of the law-abiding majority is utterly corrosive to public confidence in policing.”
The Home Secretary set out her vision for policing which she said focuses on fighting high-priority crime rather than paying attention to “political correctness”.
She hit out at woke police by warning officers to avoid taking the knee or intervening in “contested” issues online, such as trans debates.
Ms Braverman said: “Everything that our police officers do should be about fighting crime, catching criminals, and keeping the public safe.
“My mantra at the Home Office is simple: common sense policing. Common sense policing means more police on our streets; It means better police culture and higher standards;
“It means giving the public confidence that the police are unequivocally on their side, not pandering to politically correct preoccupations.”
Ms Braverman said there is a “damaging” perception that officers are at times on the side of climate demonstrators, adding: “They need to be seen to be serious.”
Police should not show support for critical race theory or intervene in gender critical debate, Ms Braverman insisted while speaking to reporters.
She said: “There’s a perception at times that they are supporting the militant protesters, as I said, giving them cups of tea or dancing along with them.
“I think that from a public confidence point of view all of that is damaging.
“They need to be seen to be serious. They need to be seen to be responding actively and swiftly to the crimes people are experiencing.”
Ms Braverman said police should not be spending thousands of pounds on lanyards or on equality and diversity programmes which espoused contested ideologies like critical race theory.
She insisted cultural changes within policing were necessary in the wake of Baroness Casey’s report, which found that the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
This needed to involve not just addressing the issues identified in the review but making sure the “public understanding and expectation” of police priorities is reflected in their work, Ms Braverman said.
This means less attention paid to “hurt feelings”, no intervention on “contested narratives” or political issues and more focus on targeting serious crime, according to the Home Secretary.
Asked to clarify what counts as a “contested narrative”, Ms Braverman gave the examples of gender critical debate and critical race theory.
Given the example of a trans flag, Mrs Braverman said: “What I want to get across is the police should not be policing lawful debate. For someone to express gender critical views on social media, they shouldn’t be getting involved in that.
“They shouldn’t be getting involved or adhering or espousing views that are into critical race theory, they shouldn’t be taking the knee.”
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was berated by MPs yesterday (WED) over the passive policing of protests when he gave evidence to the Home Affairs Committee.
He insisted officers were “having to work in a very uncertain legal framework”, and there was case law suggesting blocking traffic did not amount to “serious disruption”.
He added: “That’s what we have to wrestle with. It’s not as straightforward as saying you can immediately arrest somebody for obstructing the highway if they are protesting.”
Police chiefs were urged to share footage from officers’ body-worn video more widely to counter “spurious” claims against them and prevent “trial by social media” where “dangerous narratives” could take hold, Ms Braverman said.
Speaking at the Public Safety Foundation think tank launch, she told how she planned to write to police leaders to highlight the importance of stop and search tactics in tackling crime and the Government’s “full support for the police’s appropriate use of it”.
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