Police Resources, Demand and the Flanagan Report
| Author | Robert Heaton |
| Published date | 01 June 2009 |
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1350/pojo.2009.82.2.442 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ROBERT HEATON
Police Officer
POLICE RESOURCES, DEMAND
AND THE FLANAGAN REPORT
The Flanagan Report, published in January 2007, was a
response to widespread concerns about burgeoning but piece-
meal growth of demands upon the police. The Report’s key
aims were to contribute towards the reduction of bureaucracy,
promote better business processes and develop a ‘national
debate’ on risk aversion. The article makes a comparison of the
growth in police resources with the rise in demand for policing
services over the previous decade. It concludes that the bulk of
increased demand arose from a variety of government inter-
ventions, each of which was made with the aim of improving
some aspect of police performance. The conclusion is drawn
that a longer-term and more objective view of police capabil-
ities is required by policy makers.
Keywords: Flanagan Report; police bureaucracy; police
resources; police workload; risk aversion
Introduction
A consensus emerged in 2006, that the police had reached a
strategic watershed. The complexity of policing and its piece-
meal responses to burgeoning demands were challenged by Tom
Williamson, who advocated the appointment of a Royal Com-
mission to consider the remit and priorities of the service
(Wilkinson, 2006: 14). The director of policing policy at the new
National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) stated more spe-
cifically that ‘the one thing everyone agrees on is that we are
attempting to do too much’ (Pertile, 2006: 11). In a similar vein,
the retiring Chief Constable of Norfolk Police expressed the
view that: ‘We cannot sustain the current level of activity, so we
are going to have to say we cannot do this any more’ (Haynes,
2006: 8).
At the workface, a survey commissioned by the Police
Federation came to similar conclusions. Front-line officers were
found to be working under excessive pressures and bureaucracy,
compromising service quality. The authors echoed Williamson’s
recommendation, concluding that:
The Police Journal, Volume 82 (2009) 95
DOI: 10.1358/pojo.2009.82.2.442
The appearance of chaotic reform . . ., the conflicting ele-
ments of the Reform Programme which are brought into
clear relief . . . by the tensions associated with the introduc-
tion of ‘revitalised’ Neighbourhood Policing and the insights
into the current administrative model of policing which
underpins current resource allocation decisions, all point
unequivocally to the need for a fundamental root and branch
enquiry into the police service. This would systematically
explicate the premises of modern police organisation theory
and practice and assess how well suited they are to the
policing needs of the 21st century. This would require a
wide-ranging enquiry which could pull together the lessons
from the past by reviewing the literature on policing and
commission its own research. It requires a Royal Commis-
sion on policing. (Chatterton & Bingham, 2006: 131)
In March 2007, the President of the Superintendents’ Associ-
ation argued similarly on behalf of senior officers, that:
The agenda is being changed weekly or monthly by the
Home Office. This week it is neighbourhood policing, next
week it will be protective services. In the meantime, response
policing is suffering and we are not providing what the
public wants which is someone turning up when a member of
the public rings and says that they need a police officer now.
So there is definitely a tension between those three aspects of
policing. (Martis, 2007)
The Home Secretary at that time, Dr John Reid, responded to
these views, not with a Royal Commission, but instead a
‘Review of Policing’, headed by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector
of Constabulary, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. Initiated in April 2007,
the Review had four aims. These were: to reduce bureaucracy
and promote better business processes; to sustain and ‘main-
stream’ progress made on neighbourhood policing; to improve
public involvement in priority-setting and accountability pro-
cesses; and to manage resources more effectively. In view of its
breadth of scope, the final report was produced with remarkable
speed in January 2008. The proposals of the subsequent Green
Paper From the Neighbourhood to the National: Policing our
Communities Together (Home Office, 2008) were, in substantial
measure, influenced by the views expressed in the Flanagan
Report.
This article discusses some of the research evidence in
relation to the report’s first aim, namely reduction of bureaucracy
96 The Police Journal, Volume 82 (2009)
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