The Independent Commission into the future of policing published its report ‘Policing for a Better Britain’ on the 25th November 2013. The Commission’s remit was as wide reaching as that of the Royal Commission on the Police undertaken fifty years ago.
Otherwise known as the Stevens report, after the Chair of the Commission, with 37 recommendations covering eight key themes, the Commission seeks to provide a roadmap for the professional evolution of the police service. It makes a number of statements about increasing the use of PB in Policing.
Below we have highlighted the main points:
"Page 18, recommendation 13: The Commission believes that local community engagement has to be made a routine component of police work and a core responsibility of those elected to hold the police to account.
We recommend that police forces consider establishing ‘participatory budgeting units’ in order to ensure greater involvement of local communities in allocating local policing resources.
P33: In addition, it requires the existence of multiple settings in which affected parties can deliberate about/debate policing issues and how best to respond to them whether through, for example, neighbourhood panels, citizen juries or participatory budgeting.
Good policing depends upon the vitality and inclusiveness of these institutions of public engagement.
P91: Much greater use can be made in policing of participatory budgeting.The practice of directly involving local people in debate and decision making about how to spend resources has been growing in recent years. Some experiments in participatory budgeting have taken place in policing, organised by the Home Office, police authorities and community safety partnerships, often with the assistance of the ‘Participatory Budgeting Unit’
The Commission believes there is scope for significantly extending the role of participatory budgeting in policing, especially if budgets are devolved to a local policing area or to neighbourhood level. We recommend that police forces consider establishing ‘participatory budgeting units’ in order to ensure greater involvement of local communities in allocating local policing resource"
- Read a copy of the summary and recommendations
- Read a copy of the Commission’s full report
- Download the PB Network briefing paper on Democratising Policing