Chief Constable Gary Roberts has today announced a major programme of modernisation of the Island’s police force to maintain community safety in a new era of reduced budgets and challenging financial targets.
Neighbourhood policing is to continue, but there will be a rationalisation of the Constabulary’s management and local services. Two police stations will close and the total number of officers is reducing by 11 per cent.
The Chief Constable said:
‘The Isle of Man is a very safe place and the changes I have announced have been designed to ensure that the Constabulary’s shrinking budget does not threaten this. I would, though, sound an important word of caution - it is my professional opinion that further reductions could not be absorbed without there being a real threat to public safety.’
The modernisation programme will see significant changes being made to call handling, to command and control and to the tasking and management of police officers.
Specialist functions, including detective officers, will also be realigned and a new approach to policing the Island during night-time hours will be introduced.
There will be an overhaul of the investigation of crime and the management of intelligence. A programme of improvements will be implemented in respect of the care of victims and witnesses.
The number of police officers will reduce from 236 (having previously been as high as 248) to around 210. This reduction will see the Constabulary fall back to levels last seen in the mid-1990s.
Neighbourhood policing will be preserved, but it will be in a changed format with the three teams outside Douglas being reduced in size. These teams will be under the command of a single Inspector. Slightly more officers will be deployed in Douglas.
Other headline initiatives include:
- The closure of Douglas (Lord Street) and Port Erin police stations;
- The policing of Douglas to take place from Police Headquarters, with some Headquarters staff being moved to other locations within the government’s estate;
- The policing of the south of the Island will be undertaken from Castletown; work is progressing with Castletown Town Commissioners towards the Constabulary sharing the town’s civic centre;
- An overhaul of the Financial Crime Unit;
- A reduction in the number of detectives, road policing officers and senior officers;
- The centralisation of all police custody facilities on to a new site adjacent to Police Headquarters.
These initiatives follow closely upon a transformed approach to the policing of the TT Festival, which saw officers being removed from course duties.
The changes will be rolled out between July 2014 and the late Spring of 2015.
The reduction in police numbers has to be achieved by retirements or resignations, as police officers hold an office under the Crown, as opposed to being employees. They cannot therefore be made redundant. No members of support staff will be made redundant, or be redeployed outside the Constabulary.
The Chief Constable said:
‘The Island finds itself in very challenging financial circumstances, with government revenues having fallen considerably for several years. I am acutely aware of the problems that this has caused politicians, who have to make difficult spending decisions. Determining and then funding competing priorities is not easy.
‘I have had extensive dialogue with politicians over the last year or so. I am now in the position where I can pointlessly try to make a case for the police being special, or I can create a modern, streamlined police service that meets the needs of the people of the Isle of Man, using the financial situation as an opportunity to drive through change. I have chosen to do the latter.’
He added:
‘In the ideal world I would not have reduced the size of the Constabulary. I am, though, operating in the real world. And in the real world I have to make sure that the Constabulary is as effective as it can be given the resources we have available to us. The plans that I am announcing today are genuinely exciting, as they will make the Constabulary even more efficient and even more effective.’
Home Affairs Minister Juan Watterson MHK said:
‘The Department of Home Affairs has reached a critical point in balancing our competing priorities of protecting the vulnerable and balancing the budget. Whilst we recognise that this will mean a different level of service to the public, the Chief Constable has redesigned the Constabulary into a sustainable model for the future, which will still have its roots in our communities and focus on the prevention and detection of crime, and looking after our most vulnerable.’
He added:
‘The Department has been at the forefront of redesigning services and making savings, and we are now getting to the stage where that process is complete and represents an irreducible minimum number of people employed to meet our commitments to public safety.’
The reduction in the number of police officers has largely been achieved. No recruitment has taken place since the autumn of 2012 and officers who have left the Constabulary have not been replaced.
As things stand, the reduction in posts will be completed by mid-summer. This steep reduction has caused problems, as the Constabulary has struggled to maintain its current structure and approach with far fewer officers than it was designed for. The new structure will help ensure that the right number of officers are in the right places, at the right times and doing the right things.
The Chief Constable said:
‘The closure of police stations is not something I am doing lightly; however, the two that are being closed were opened in a much different financial environment. I am not convinced that their construction was necessarily the right thing to have done.
‘The public has very high expectations of the Constabulary and rightly so. Neighbourhood policing is still going to be at the heart of our activities and, over the next year or so, the work of the teams will undergo a change. This will involve an even greater focus on community issues, such as identifying and protecting vulnerable people, working in schools, reaching out to elderly people and better managing things such as licensed premises, road safety and low level nuisance.’
Ordinarily, the public ought not to notice major differences to the delivery of policing. The stations in Douglas and Port Erin are comparatively new and there will still be an effective, visible presence in central Douglas and in Port Erin.
Some activities that are currently conducted on a face-to-face basis will be dealt with by telephone or, increasingly, on-line. However, almost uniquely in British policing, the Constabulary will still respond to every crime and it will do its utmost to mount an effective investigation into every offence reported to it.
Where members of the public simply want advice, then this will be given in a way that most suits the need of the individual.
Future developments will include greater collaboration between the emergency services, even greater use of digital media and an emphasis on modernising the justice system, with particular focus on preventing offending and reducing reoffending.
Chief Constable Gary Roberts said:
‘I am in no doubt that safety and the quality of life are key drivers in the economic success of the Isle of Man. All of us have a responsibility to help maintain this.
‘I look forward to seeing other areas of the public service modernising and rationalising its services in similar fashion.’
