Partnership is all about change and thinking outside the box...
Within the public sector there has always existed increasing demands and supersonic calls for proactivity, As such, many believe there is a need for more parallel, not adversarial thinking. Paddington Division's Sector Working Group (SWG) is in the forefront of this police/partnership thought process. They maintain community relations must constantly ensure performance measurement exists in areas such as participation, representation, diversity, inclusivity, feedback and have an effect on local policing priorities. Also in the effective use of information - for example, how often does consultation affect decision-making?
SWG Chair, Lynda King Taylor explains "Service delivery is always more effective where it is focused at the local level. Where there is strong leadership at both community and local police levels there can be a real impact on crime and disorder reduction. However, it is important, indeed imperative, for this model of consultation and community relations to work, you must have effective and efficient performance measures in place to monitor effectiveness.
Otherwise you just have a talk shop and never involve 'hard to reach' groups. Of course it is unrealistic to ensure total participation, thus we have had to adopt imaginative and innovative approaches to reaching as many sections of the community as possible.
That is why we have used joint training approaches involving such educational eminent as Edward de Bono to assist us in thinking outside the mindset to bring 'hard to reach' communities together."
Describing the joint police/community programme as "an enormous success", the Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur invited officers on the programme to think creatively around three objectives:
- Building community confidence
- Significantly reducing crime and disorder
- Building staff confidence and capability
Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur added "We want to get officers to move away from the reactive mindset to a proactive one, from deterrent to prevention and from enforcement to problem solving."
Over the years The Chair's work with the Metropolitan Police Service (The MET) has linked customer service, community relations, best practice and winning. Initiatives such as joint training programmes of this nature with police/community groups are rare - as such the MET Police and City of Westminster's sector policing is now being regarded as a global role model.
As a result of above, many Constabulary, Local Authority and external law enforcement officials visit SWG meetings or attend joint training initiatives. Recently South African police representatives visited Paddington's Hyde Park SWG policing area in London, and the SWG Chair is en route to take the MET experience and the share best practice with other constabularies and countries such as South Africa where reduction of crime and disorder is paramount. For more details visit our Sharing Best Practice page
SWG Chair says "This joint training approach is all about mind over matter. We have received an accolade from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and the Audit Commission for our improvements in community relations and best practice. We have to work more effectively with our customers - partners - under the Crime and Disorder Act. Innovative use of limited resources is essential and I doubt whether this picture below could have been taken without Westminster police officers and their community jointly solving problems together.
In my experience it usually does. Nowhere is this better illustrated than within the spirit of partnership prospering across City of Westminster and our police/community sector working group in Paddington. Given recent events following the terrorism atrocities our community relations working together has been a 'must have' essential. As Edward de Bono says, 'you can analyse the past, but you have to design the future."
Also see new initiatives from the UK Home Office and Metropolitan Police for 'The Policing Future is Local... visit Future Policing Plans
For more joint community programmes in winning community relations 2004-2005 see Winning Community Relations Programmes
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