MPs call for overhaul of British policing
01 January 1991
MPs call for overhaul of British policing
artdoc April=1992
A report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on
police cooperation in the European Community has said that the
British policing system is `creaking at the seams' and suffering
from `blinding incompetence' in its management. It calls for the
abandonment of `piecemeal solutions and Heath Robinson
structures' which have allowed the police service to make do with
a management system designed for Victorian times.
The committee calls on the Home Office to conduct a thorough
review of the current complex structure and funding of policing
and to publish a consultation paper followed by a White Paper.
Its chairman, John Wheeler, MP, has said that a national police
force, delivered locally, is necessary, and the report calls for
research on the setting up of a European-wide force to tackle
terrorism, drug trafficking and fraud. The MPs also want more
positive consideration of proposals for a national identity card
scheme and for Britain to make the establishment of a common
European identity card a priority during its presidency of the
European Commission in 1992. (Independent 26.7.90)
Institute of Race Relations, Police-Media Bulletin, no 63