Eight: Future directions
This chapter consolidates the discussions of previous chapters and considers the future of the police in terms of plurality of policing provision. It considers the way in which the public police are likely to develop over the forthcoming years, and discusses the likely consequences of this. It also considers the implications of a potential situation whereby the public police may be forced to redefine their role based on core issues, thus providing opportunities for the expansion of private provision and other forms of public policing.
The police service, like most organisations in the public and private sectors, has been through a period of major challenge and change since the global financial crisis that began in 2008. The government’s spending review of 2010 outlined the police service’s budget for the following four years. It led to the first significant reduction in police funding and officer numbers in recent history. In 1995/96, total cash funding for the police was £6.2 billion (£9.6 billion in real terms [2014/15 prices]), rising every year to reach £12.9 billion in 2010/11 (£13.8 billion in real terms [2014/15 prices]). Cash funding has fallen in every year since to £11.6 billion in 2015/16 (£11.5 billion in real terms [2014/15 prices]). In March 1995, the total police workforce (officers, police community support officers and staff) numbered 179,900, rising to 243,900 by March 2010. Since then, it has been falling each year, and reached 206,800 in 2015 (rounded full-time equivalent figure) (HMIC, 2015). The police service’s performance is most often measured by crime figures, even though these are an incomplete picture of crime and the work carried out by forces.
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