Home Office
This speech has been edited to remove political content.
Thank you, Rory for that introduction. You know better than most, from your own experience on the beat, the realities that our brave police officers face when going up against violent thugs and other criminals, and the damage that crime can do to people and communities.
And thats why its wonderful to be here welcoming the launch of The Public Safety Foundation, an organisation committed to making the UK the safest place to live, work, and raise a family.
This really is the perfect forum for setting out my ethos for common sense policing.
Everything that our police officers do should be about fighting crime, catching criminals, and keeping the public safe.
My mantra at the Home Office is simple: common sense policing.
Common sense policing means more police on our streets.
It means better police culture and higher standards.
It means giving the public confidence that the police are unequivocally on their side, not pandering to politically correct preoccupations.
It means measuring the police on outputs such as public response times, crimes solved, and criminals captured.
It means police officers freed up to spend their time on proper police work.
It means police prioritising the highest harm crimes and those that matter most to the public.
It means the police making use of powers like stop and search that have proven effective in taking weapons off our streets.
And above all else, common sense policing means officers maintaining a relentless focus on fighting crime, catching criminals, and keeping the public safe.
I am going to speak to each of these themes in turn today.
Firstly, the public wants to see more bobbies on the beat and so do I.
It is central to common sense policing.
Everyone who has been part of the governments Police Uplift Programme should be immensely proud of what weve achieved in the last few years.
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Weve delivered an additional 20,951 officers into policing over the past three years.
There are now almost 150,000 police officers across England and Wales. The highest number ever.
24 forces now have more police officers than they ever had before the programme.
I am extremely grateful to police chiefs for leading this drive.
And to those men and women who have signed up: you are now part of a policing family epitomised by bravery, and dedicated to public service and safety.
As part of the new generation of policing, you will help to raise standards, refocus priorities, and maintain our world-leading place in policing.
Policing must remain open to the best and the bravest - whether or not they have a degree. And common sense policing means encouraging the recruitment of officers that come from and live in the communities they serve, familiar with local challenges, and familiar to local people.
Thats why I have widened the pool from which we can recruit, by enabling non-degree holders to be part of policing. Its not about how many exams you sit or essays you can write - important skills though those are. Its about common sense, problem-solving, strength- of character and strength of physique.
20,000 officers is not just a statistic in a press release.
The uplift is already delivering improved outcomes for policing and the communities they serve.
All forces now have a named officer and contact information on their websites, meaning our commitment to greater local accountability as set out in the Beating Crime Plan.
More police, means more flexibility for forces to do what makes sense locally, which goes to the very heart of common sense policing.
A Police and Crime Commissioner recently explained how the uplift is making a difference in their patch: They said: Additional officers have been deployed into our more rural communities, which allows response times to lessen and takes pressure off urban-based officers from covering a wider area allowing them to focus on localised crime.
In one force, much of uplift has been reinvested in to tackling rape, with the creation of an additional 119 roles.
Another force has used the uplift to double the size of its knife crime team, boosting its capacity to seize dangerous weapons and keep people safe.
Recruiting officers is crucial to getting more bobbies on the beat. But retention of existing officers is similarly important.
Every force must focus on retaining the essential skills and experience of existing officers.
We are driving forward work to support this, whether thats through the College of Policings Leadership Centre, the NPCCs Productivity Review, or introducing a statutory Police Covenant, which is already delivering tangible benefits for the police.
For the first time, new officers are given pre-deployment mental health training to ensure they are able to manage the rigors of frontline policing.
And welfare standards covering the entire workforce are now assessed as part of the regular force inspection programme.
It is also vital that policing can offer a pathway back for those who do leave, to ensure that experience doesnt only ever leave the building.
Whilst many forces have deployed rejoiner schemes at entry level, I am not convinced that all forces are doing enough to encourage more senior people back into policing.
There is scope to expand these schemes to focus on key skills gaps using the standards and guidance developed by the College of Policing.
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This is a great success story. But what will really count is what an expanded police force - this new generation of policing - does next.
More policing is necessary but not sufficient. Common sense policing must also mean higher standards, better culture, and more effective policing.
Baroness Caseys review into the Metropolitan Police makes for harrowing reading.
As I said in the House of Commons, there have been serious failures of culture and leadership.
I have the utmost confidence in the Mets new leadership team. Sir Mark Rowley is right to make the restoration of public confidence in policing his top priority and I will give him every support as he pursues his turnaround plan.
But I also expect those with direct political accountability for forces - PCCs in general, and with respect to the Met, the Mayor of London in particular - to properly exercise their oversight functions.
Baroness Caseys review will inform the work of Lady Elish Angiolinis inquiry which will look at broader issues of policing standards and culture.
Steps have already been taken to ensure that forces tackle weaknesses in their vetting systems. I am currently reviewing the police dismissals process to speed up the removal of those officers who fall short of the high standards expected of them.
That review is also looking at simplifying the process for dealing with poor performance and ensuring that the system is effective at enabling an officer who fails vetting checks in service to be removed.
The law-abiding public must be able to know that they can trust any officer they see. Those who are not fit to wear the badge must never do so, and where they are exposed, they must face justice and be driven out of the force.
I have seen examples of strong leadership transforming police forces up and down the country. So, Im confident that policing can and will step up.
Changing the culture doesnt just mean addressing the sorts of issues that Baroness Casey identified and raising professional standards to the level that the public rightly expect. That is a pre-requisite.
A common sense culture in policing must also mean that policing understands and reflects public expectations about the polices proper focus and function.
For too long, too many in authority have indulged a narrative that crime, rather than being a destructive option chosen by a criminal minority, is an illness to be treated.
This narrative seeks to diminish individual responsibility and culpability by holding that criminals are themselves victims.
This modern emphasis on the needs of delinquents, thugs and criminals, however cruel their intentions or damaging their behaviour may be, displaces the old fashioned and just retributive consideration of the criminal events themselves, and of the effect they have on the genuine victims.
People want their government and their police to be unequivocally on the side of the victims, rather than making excuses for, or distracted by efforts to redeem the perpetrators.
Its something I hear a lot. On my travels around the country. On the doorstep. People everywhere tell me they want common sense, good old fashioned criminal justice.
They want the police to turn up quickly when theyre called.
They want to know that when a crime is reported it will be properly investigated - and, so Im glad that all domestic burglaries now receive a police response, as I called for last autumn.
They want hope that the police might even catch the crooks.
And they want confidence that when someone is arrested, if they are found guilty, they will be appropriately punished.
Because without risk of capture or of punishment, without an appropriate cost to those breaking the law, criminals will take advantage.
That sense of mission must be reflected in police priorities if the police are to retain public confidence.
Sometimes the police simply need to make better arguments. Most people recognise that smartphone clips of a contested incident circulating on social media only ever tell a fraction of th