AND WALES), 1925. Reports by H.M. Inspectors of Constabulary. I. REPORT BY SIR LEONARD DUNNING. Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.1. 18 December, 1925. To the Right Honourable His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department. Sir, I have the honour to present a Report upon the County and City or Borough Police Forces of England and Wales for the year ended the 29th September, 1925. 1. All the Forces, county, city or borough, set out in Table I have been visited as directed by the County and Borough Police Act, 1856, and in due course reports were made upon which the Secretary of State issued his certificates under that Act and the Police Pensions Act, 1921, except in some few cases. In one of these the police authority has undertaken to rectify certain shortcomings in the administration of the service. Questions of discipline were involved in three. In one, the Inspector held an inquiry at the request of the Watch Committee, while the force concerned in another has been consolidated with the county since the period of the report, and the matter has been allowed to drop. In the event of any of the certificates being finally withheld the papers will be laid before Parliament in due course. The question of the efficient maintenance of numbers as a condition of the transfer from the Exchequer Contribution Accounts, and the kindred question of the full and proper administration of the service as a condition of the newer direct Exchequer grant, were dealt with in the reports with due regard to the arrangement about vacancies described later. The second condition of the direct Treasury contribution, that the rates of pay and allowances have received the sanction of the Secretary of State, has, as in previous years, been the subject of direct correspondence between the Home Office and the police authorities. 2. Representations made by Branch Boards at inspection have been few, and it is not necessary to make any comment on them, as they have been adjusted where necessary. (20827) Wt. 21642/C 503 1500 2/26 Harrow G.79/43. B 3. In the case of the City of London Police Force, a report has been submitted to the effect that the police service has been fully and properly administered, the one condition which was referred for report. 4. The Tables attached are in the same form as those of last year. It is well to call attention, as usual, to the fact that Table II, prepared by the Statistical Department of the Home Office, relates to the year ended the 31st March, 1924, and not to the period of this Report. Corresponding figures relating to the Metropolitan Police Force, which is outside the limits of this Report, have been added to both tables, as usual, for purposes of comparison. 5. Table I, Column 1.-The number of county forces remains at 58, or at 60 if, as is probably more correct, the three Forces united in the charge of the Chief Constable of Lincolnshire are counted separately. The borough forces again number 123, but one force, that of Banbury, has been consolidated with the county of Oxford as from the 1st October, since the period of the report. The borough of Tiverton, a little island police district in Devon, with a police establishment of eleven, declined to take the opportunity of consolidating with the county, which the retirement of the Chief Constable presented. 6. Column 2: Authorized Establishment.-The figures are:Counties, 17,989; Cities and Boroughs, 18,615; total, 36,604. Last year they were 17,958 and 18,604, total, 36,562. But in view of what will be said later about vacancies and the reasons for maintaining them, the figures of the authorized establishment are of less interest. 7. Column 3: Vacancies.-The vacancies on the 29th September were 1,643, or 4.489 per cent. of the establishment. Last year they were 2,203, or 6.025 per cent. The vacancies therefore still remain more numerous than those of pre-war years. In 1913, for instance, they were 1.09 per cent. The reason for the present increase is discussed elsewhere (paragraph 15), but this is a convenient place for reference to certain questions which touch that of vacancies, namely, the quality of the candidates for filling them and their training when appointed. 8. During the year 2,467 recruits were appointed, and 178 men left for one reason or another before the probationary period of one year was completed. Last year the figures were 2,181 and 167. The difficulty of finding men really suitable for appointment continues. The proportion of men better educated and otherwise better qualified does perhaps increase a little, but the average quality of the candidates is not a bit better than it was years ago. Why is it that the policeman's many opportunities of valuable service to the community do not attract? To a great extent the police are what the community, whom they serve, make them, and mistaken ideas of their mutual relations on the part of members of the community are responsible for some of the practices which tend to keep back, rather than raise, the service in the public eye. Some people, perhaps many people, take their impression of a policeman from the policeman of the pantomime and the comic paper, and it is quite possible that the chance of association with that picture and the ridicule attaching to it chokes off men whom a better understanding of police work might attract. Those who have known the service from within for many years have to admit that that picture with the practices which it suggests, is not entirely an invention, but they know, too, the feeling which is growing stronger in the service itself against practices which keep the policeman lower down the social scale than his profession deserves. We find evidence of that feeling in the following passage from the report of the Constables' Central Committee of the Police Federation to those whom they represent: "The problem of how the general morale is to be raised as it ought to be, is bigger than we are qualified to tackle, nor do we think this will be expected. But good men should be attracted primarily by the scope afforded for public service, and in practice we find that the majority of policemen, doubtless like good men in any good service, in carrying out their work, pay very little or no regard at the moment to the emoluments they receive or to their future prospects, but are solely concerned to render the most efficient and useful service in their power." The problem is not too big for the police themselves; some aspects of it are peculiarly their own, if they wish, as many of them undoubtedly do, to raise their profession in the social scale. They can do it, because they can apply the pressure of social ostracism to anybody who keeps them down by still preferring his personal profit to the credit of the uniform. Let the Police Federation go further and adopt for advice to their comrades at large the resolution of one Joint Branch Board : "Resolved. That we respectfully suggest that all gratuities received by members of this force be submitted to the Chief Constable, who will decide to what charitable objects they shall be forwarded, and that the donor be so informed." At a recent disciplinary enquiry, a sergeant spoke of the directors of a football ground, where he was doing duty for the preservation of public order, as his employers, but the opinion of the Desborough Committee on this particular detail of the general question is absolutely sound :-- "We consider it particularly undesirable that constables who are employed at the cost of an individual should receive from him or from the Police Authority any special payment in consideration of the services rendered." (20827) B 2 General adoption of the spirit of that opinion and of the resolution of the Branch Board will go far to teach people and police alike that police duty is duty to the community, not to the individual, performed because it is duty and not with any view to rewards, gratuities, Christmas boxes, free food and drink, or tips under any name, from those who have enjoyed the security afforded by the general vigilance of the police or the results of their exertions or intelligence in particular circumstances. Acceptance of such favours puts the recipient into a position of social inferiority to the giver, of which a policeman should be ashamed. 9. As reported last year, improvement in training is progressive in the Forces which have enjoyed some definite system in the past, and in other places police authorities are waking up to the fact that if they want to get the best work out of their men they must have them taught what is useful. We ought to get men who would not have to be taught what they ought to have learned in school, but we do not get enough of them and we must do our best with the others. There is still much to be done before we can say that no constable is sent to duty before he has at all events the theoretical knowledge of his duties, is qualified to render first aid to the injured and in immersion cases, can swim, and is generally fit to face the difficulties with which the young constable, just as much as his more experienced comrade, may be confronted. Chief Constables who have not facilities for training must sacrifice their prejudices and send their recruits where those facilities exist. There are places where there are no facilities, but, now that there is no difficulty in getting recruits attached to another force for training, this excuse cannot be accepted. 10. Columns 5-13: Authorized Establishment of the several ranks. The figures show but trifling variation from those of last year. 11. Columns 14-16: Additional Constables.-The total, 1,622, shows a decrease of 53 from that of last year. 12. Columns 22-23: Policewomen.-The figures for this year, 56 attested and 34 not attested, as compared with 48 and 37 of last year, show a small increase of the employment of policewomen and also of the practice of putting the policewoman in exactly the same position as the policeman. Personally, I do not think that any powers of arrest beyond the large powers possessed by every citizen are in the least degree necessary for the duties to which policewomen may be properly assigned, but if having made the declaration of a constable gives the policewoman a greater sense of reality and responsibility there can surely be no harm in her doing so. Both questions, that of appointing policewomen and that of having or not having them make the declaration of a constable, have been definitely left by two Committees to the discretion of the local authority. The latter must be the best judge of the extent to which any evil with which women can deal better than men exists in the particular district, and of the extent to which efforts other than those of the police are successful in combating it. No central authority, for instance, can say whether one police authority which prefers to grant a subsidy to an outside organization to appointing policewomen is right or wrong. 13. Unfortunately the employment of women in the police presents itself to many people merely as part of the feminist question. It is discussed with prejudice on both sides and seldom on its merits. The vital questions are, is there in the particular police district some part of the work of the police for which a woman, by her sex, is better fitted than a man, and, if so, is there enough of it to make the whole time employment of women possible? The first duty of the police is to prevent crime; they can do so by force, or by persuasion and advice. Force is better left to the man, and so is persuasion when the person to be persuaded is male, but persuasion or advice offered to a female comes better from a woman. Nobody can believe that 210 cases (Criminal Statistics, 1923, Table XVI, Column (2)) of defilement of girls under 16 known to the police represents any large proportion of this crime, now that girls are allowed to run about and amuse themselves as they fancy. Though the law lays the blame on the male, preventive persuasion and advice are more usefully addressed to the female, who may be strengthened in her resistance to male. temptation or be dissuaded from being herself the temptress. Policewomen of the right sort, intelligently directed, can establish an influence in the streets and places of public resort which may do much to save girls from taking a step which cannot be retraced. This to my mind, as I reported last year, comes far in front of the many other duties proposed for women, and if they are once established in it their utility will develop. The difficulty of their performing other duties, such as custody and escort of women and children, attendance on them in Court, taking statements from the victims of sexual crime, is the practical one that in most districts the occasions arise so seldom that whole time employment is not possible. Except the last, none of these duties requires anything but kindliness from a good woman, and this the resident wives of policemen and others who do part time duty as police matrons adequately supply. There is another practical difficulty-it is far harder to find suitable women than it is to find suitable men. 14. Columns 24-25: Reserves.-The figures, First Reserve 3,064, Second Reserve 87,027, compared with 3,055 and 89,775 of last year show that the first is stationary while the second has fallen a little. The difficulty of creating even a small reserve of trained men is very great and cannot be discussed here with any profit. As to the second figure, that of the Second Reserve or Special Constables, the difficulty is to persuade the average citizen that, valuable as his services may be in the emergency, they would be increased by some little knowledge of the duties which he may be called upon to perform, and that the mere (20827) B 3 |