Policing at a Crossroads – A Service Under Pressure
Policing’s leaders today are under intense pressure – trying to navigate demand and performance pressures with stretched resources and a new workforce. This article summarises these critical challenges policing must fact up to: stretched resources, growing pains, growing demands, performance pressures, and a crisis of confidence.
Top 5 Policing Challenges for 2024
- Stretched resources
- Growing pains
- Growing demands
- Performance pressures
- A crisis of confidence
1. Stretched resources
Despite reaching a record number of officers in March 2023, a deeper analysis reveals a more complex scenario. While officer numbers are at a peak, they are still at lower per capita levels than in 2010 (4% down) and the overall strength of the service, including PCSOs and staff has fallen much further (11% down). The long-term outlook for police funding is not good and police reserves are much lower than in 2010. Savings initiatives are therefore back on the agenda. And they are much harder to achieve due to demand pressures and the constraint of having to maintain officer numbers of face hefty financial penalties from the Home Office.
2. Growing pains
The Police Uplift Programme has dramatically altered the composition of the police workforce. With a significant proportion of officers having less than five years of service, leadership faces the dual task of maintaining this uplift and effectively integrating new talent.
3. Growing demands
The landscape of crime and policing demands is shifting. Traditional crime rates may be declining, but policing must now deal with a surge in complex crimes in the private sphere and an explosion of online crime harms. These pressures are exacerbated by a spike in public calls for assistance and major backlogs across the criminal justice system: including investigative and historic investigative backlogs in policing, a mountain of ‘technical debt’ from ICT underinvestment, major crown court backlogs and overcrowded prisons.
4. Performance pressures
With these growing pains and demands, policing performance is under intense scrutiny. The inspectorate is judging forces to be performing more poorly than previously – particularly in response and investigation effectiveness. But policing must also handle the often-competing pressures and directives from their wider governance and accountability landscape – including the Home Office, PCCs, local stakeholders and the media.
5. A crisis of confidence
Public trust in policing has reached a critical point. Incidents involving officers and perceptions of declining effectiveness have contributed to a widespread crisis of confidence in the service. YouGov (1) reports on September 2023, that 42% say the police are doing a bad job, up from 2019; 51% say doing a good job, down from over 70% 4 years ago.
Leapwise wants to foster understanding and discussion around these pivotal issues. These are common problems, but we need to recognise that each force faces distinct challenges, and there are few universal solutions. Forces must navigate their unique landscapes, balancing local demand, fiscal constraints, and community expectations.
We invite you to download our comprehensive Policing Prospectus for in-depth insights and strategies to transform these challenges into opportunities for growth and to build a high performance team.
