UNISON's
apprach
Strengthen the delivery of police services by expanding
the role of police staffs and bringing all forces up to
the levels of the best as set out in UNISON’s report
‘Civilianisation of Police in Scotland’.
Police Staffs roles are multifunctional
and diverse. They mainly operate in corporate and administrative
support roles in functions such as intelligence, information
technology and human resources. There are also increasing
numbers of staff taking on operational roles in areas such
as custody and detention, investigation and surveillance.
BACKGROUND & OUTLOOK
Police staffs play a crucial role in the operations of the
Scottish police forces, with a wide range of jobs from caretaking
to custody officers, and from finance to forensics.
These roles and the numbers have grown in recent years,
partly reflecting the increased specialisation of police
functions and partly to free police officers from duties
that do not require full police powers.
Police forces in Scotland have always employed civilian
staff they are not a cheap option or a substitute for police
officers. There are many police functions where properly
qualified civilian personnel are simply the most effective
way to deliver the full range of routine, complex and specialized
functions that are central to modern-day police forces.
Current Roles
UNISON Scotland commissioned research on the civilianisation
of police forces in Scotland which looked at the current
levels and responsibilities of police staffs as well as
options for future civilianisation.
The roles of police staffs are largely determined by individual
police forces. This has led to a ‘patchwork’
or variable use of police staffs across forces where they
have been used to suit local policing needs. In Scotland,
police staffs largely occupy corporate (27%) and administrative
and support (61%) roles. Just over a tenth of police
staffs are in operational roles (12%), though this is higher
in some forces.
Overall police staffs, as a proportion of the total workforce
in Scottish police forces, range from 25% in Strathclyde
to 33% in Grampian and Dumfries & Galloway, with the
national average being 28%. This is not as high as the proportion
elsewhere in the UK, and UNISON Scotland believes that there
is scope for further civilianisation within Scottish police
forces. Variations exist in the use of police staffs across
forces, by copying best practice jobs could be created and
police officers freed up for front line duties.
Future Roles
Workforce modernisation studies in England & Wales,
using police staffs alongside officers, highlighted performance
improvements in terms of the freeing up of police officer
time, the establishment of new police functions and the
quality of service; savings in costs and greater efficiencies
of service; personnel benefits in terms of the increased
morale and commitment of staff, recruitment and levels of
diversity in the police service; and public benefits in
terms of the provision of more dedicated services, the greater
visibility of ‘beat’ personnel and local intelligence
gathering.
UNISON Scotland’s research highlighted that there
may be some scope to extend civilian posts within police
forces. This can either be done by extending the civilianisation
of existing police officer roles or through new policing
roles (such as the use of Police Community Support Officers
as in England & Wales).
The research indicated a number of areas of staff deployment
that police forces may be expected to look at in terms of
‘deepening’ civilianisation within forces.
In emerging administrative and support roles, these concern
dispatcher posts, contact/ service centre posts and station
assistant positions. In operational roles, these concern
financial investigators, process servers, scenes of crimes
officers, vehicle examiners, wildlife crime officers and
to a lesser extent, staff in custody and detention roles;
The report also provided a comparison between Police Community
Support Officers and community wardens and the possibility
of introducing this role within Scottish Forces. This
highlighted that PCSOs (not to be confused with the acronym
for Police Custody & Security Officers used in Scottish
police forces) would be employed by the police and have
a wider range of enforcement powers.
However, only three (out of eight) police forces reported
that they had conducted formal research into the civilianisation
of posts in the past five years. Of those who had
done so, in one force civilianisation had largely involved
the replacement of constables with staff, with little replacement
involving senior police officer personnel.
KEY QUESTIONS
Can we use ‘best practice’ as a model to promote
civilianisation?
Other than ‘freeing up police officers’ and
‘value for money’ what arguments can we use
to promote civilianisation?
How can we promote the use of PCSOs?
Draft published: 5 December 2009
Current version updated: 2 February 2010
Members and branches can help to develop these
policy ideas further.
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