HC 800 - Evaluating the new Architecture of Policing: The College of Policing and the National Crime Agency

Book excerpt: Since 2010 the Home Secretary has set out an ambitious plan for the new landscape of policing. However, more progress has to be made to declutter the landscape and ensure that the organisations created meet the rapidly evolving challenges facing 21st century policing. Force mergers are clearly back on the agenda. The College of Policing was a great idea that has both vision and purpose. However, numerous hurdles, weak foundations, and an unrepresentative board have hindered its ability to function to its full potential. In time, the College has the power to fashion a new concept of policing. For the local bobby, he or she needs a certificate of policing that is affordable, an oath that is binding and ethics that are ingrained within its DNA, and training that is practical, however at the moment none of this exists. The NCA has been a success, and has proved to be more responsive and more active than its predecessor SOCA, but it is not yet the FBI equivalent that it was hailed to be. Its reputation has been damaged by the unacceptably slow response to the backlog of child abuse cases sent to it by Toronto Police. The NCA must establish practical benchmarks against which its performance can be assessed. Its current asset recovery is not of a sufficient volume when set against its half a billion pound budget.