Thames Valley Chief Constable says 'biggest issue is bureaucracy'

The Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police says he is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that reforms to policing will help cut ‘unnecessary’ administrative procedures which are creating barriers to tackling more criminals.

The Government announced a 106-page white paper to make huge reforms to poling, such as cutting the number of regional police forces from 43 to as few as 12.

Chief Constable Jason Hogg hopes the planned changes will be an opportunity to remove barriers, saying “my officers and staff are facing crippling levels of bureaucracy”.

Adding: “If there's one issue… there is far, far too much bureaucracy and too much paperwork.

“If I could free up my staff, to be more visible and making it easier for them to bring offenders to justice, we could be much, much more effective in terms of focusing our activities and targeting the few people who commit crime.”

Continuing, “If we could be laser-like in how we use our resources and free our officers and staff, we can make our street even more safer”.

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Hogg gave us an example of why there is ‘too much paperwork’.

He said: “I was out on patrol in Milton Keynes last week and detained an individual. He was struggling violently, so myself and a number of officers put him in handcuffs. There was probably around five or six officers present. Each of us had to put in a use of force form.

“It took me 14 minutes, I timed it to fill in that form, and every single one of those officers had to fill in that form for effectively for doing their job and using handcuffs to keep the offender safe and us safe as well.

“That seems pretty ridiculous to me because that whole interaction was all recorded on the body worn cameras.”