Police officers need to be given their powers of discretion back and not be afraid of a backlash against them when they make decisions, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary has said.

Sir Dennis O’Connor stressed that the service was now facing “the greatest changes for a very long time” with the unprecedented state of public finances.

And he warned that problems could be exacerbated if current cultural attitudes prevailed. “If the police are too risk averse, it could turn out to be the greatest risk of all,” he said. “We can’t keep up with the torrent of guidance and advice.”
¬they already have a good moral compass but they are not being allowed to use their common sense¬
O’Connor added that thousands of pages of guidance documents are bogging down officers and believes a fundamental return to basic principles is needed.

“The key point for me is to celebrate the jewel in the British policing model – discretion,” he said. “The fact is that you cannot offset or eliminate all risk.

“We probably will not be able to do the job that is required of us in future unless we change the touchstone for how police officers are expected to handle risk.”

O’Connor was concerned that officers are fearful of making decisions because they could face criticism further down the line in what he called the “just in case culture”.

He said some officers are having their time tied up through activities such as walking drunks home because they fear the consequences if people are involved in accidents.

O’Connor believed there is now a “fudged and elastic view” of what the police can do for the public and argued the current status quo is not sustainable in the long term.

In calling for discretion to be returned to officers he added: “This is something that Peel guarded jealously – it is time we guarded it jealously too.”

The view of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector was endorsed by Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Brian Moore. He added that the “behemoth of public opinion” presented in the media after events could make officers more afraid of making decisions.

CC Moore outlined a case in which his Force had been notified of hazardous driving conditions caused by mud on a road. Following an accident a police officer made a decision not to close the road – which would have caused huge disruption – having seen scores of vehicles pass the scene safely. However tragically there was later a further – fatal – crash.

Despite an IPCC judgement against it, the Force – which voluntarily referred the matter to the commission – decided not to take any action against the two officers, claiming that they had made a reasonable decision based on the available information and that lessons had been learned from the incident.

“The position of a PC is not like that of a Chief Constable, who makes decisions in weeks or months,” CC Moore added. “We are asking them to make reasonable decisions in five minutes, where people may be living or dying.”

Jan Berry, the Independent Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing Advocate, also believes that a cultural change is needed. She said: “We do recruit good people that join the Police Service to do the right thing – they already have a good moral compass but they are not being allowed to use their common sense.”