Police still bogged down in red tape

POLICE in the force area covering Plymouth spent more  than a third of their time  pen-pushing and training last  year - instead of being out on the  beat fighting crime.

Latest Home Office figures reveal that officers in Devon and  Cornwall spent only 60.8 per  cent of their time on frontline  duties in 2006/7, including making arrests.

This compares to 2005/6 when  officers spent 63 per cent of their  time on frontline duties – meaning they spent less time last  year out on patrol than during  the previous 12 months.

However, the official government data masks the total  amount of form-filling because  the Home Office's definition of  front-line policing includes time  spent on “incident-related” paperwork.

This includes writing up arrest  reports and case files, which  takes upon average 8.6 per cent  of an officer's frontline duty  time.

A separate stack of non-incident  related paperwork is carried out  when officers are off frontline  duties, such as dealing with  complaints, organising truancy  sweeps, community policing activities, and management issues.

Non-frontline duties also include time spent at court, crime  prevention activities, custody  duties, operational planning  and call handling duties.

West Yorkshire Police officers  spent the most amount of time  on the frontline (76 per cent) in  2006/7, while Cleveland Police  spent the least amount of time  on frontline duties last year  (56.1 per cent).

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve condemned the figures saying: “Even using this  dubious Government measure  of the use of police time -  Labour's red-tape means officers are spending a pitiful  amount of time on the beat.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs  spokesman Chris Huhne said:  “Successive governments have  vowed to cut police bureaucracy  but officers remain tangled in a  web of red tape.”

Last month the Government unveiled plans to give police  greater freedom from red tape  and targets.

All but one of the force targets in  England and Wales will be  scrapped under the Green Paper reforms, while a further £25  million will also be spent on  hand-held “mobile data devices”  to help cut paperwork.

 Prime Minister Gordon Brown  said the measures would mean  more visible policing on the  streets.

A Home Office spokesman said:  “Proposals in the recent Policing  Green Paper will cut red tape  and top-down targets, freeing  the police to focus on the most  serious crime and on local issues.

 “There will be a new enhanced  role for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)  to robustly and transparently  scrutinise police performance  and Jan Berry has been appointed as an independent bureaucracy champion to drive  further cuts in red tape and free  up extra police hours.

 “An extra £25million will also be  invested in new technology and  IT systems to help save time and  reduce the need for officers to  return to the station to fill out  paper work.”