Vision

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To serve the public well the police service of the future will have to be:

• community driven not statistically driven;
  
• capably operating across the range from neighbourhood to serious and organised crime level;
  
• competently supported by businesslike partnerships and the centre organised for capacity building; and
  
• credibly independent and impartial, but conscious of its interdependence on others.
  

ACPO regards continuing change as essential. We believe that reform at intervals is insufficient and that ‘constant transformation’ is the only approach to serve the public well in the 21st century.

The world is changing and as such our response has extended further than the Green Paper because we need to respond to new social dynamics, a stretch in capacity, emerging threats and a crucial need to join up the “policing” response.

Our response is based upon the finding of our first National Strategic Assessment of crime and disorder across England and Wales, undertaken through the National Intelligence Model. It finds the following;

• Continuing increase in demand (e.g. calls for service doubling in eight years, criminal exploitation of opportunities through the movement of people or the expansion of global IT)
  
  
• The increasing impact around criminal use of drugs at all levels.
  
  
• Alcohol abuse, related violence and anti-social behaviour are scarring our communities.
  
  
• There is an increasingly complex challenge from serious crime.
  
  
• A change in the pattern of bulk crime to a more personalised threat and away from threats to property such as vehicles and homes.
  
  
• Fragmented communities and new communities which have little ability to self-police.
  
  
• A gap in police capability (a need to expand into neighbourhood policing and improve level 2 response)
  
  
• Too many targets (28 main targets have been identified)
  
  
• A need to create the room for priorities to be set at a local level (the first of a number of changes required in either governance or support)