Policing Advance Access originally published online on September 20, 2007
Policing 2007 1(3):300-308; doi:10.1093/police/pam049
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Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press.
Embracing Accountability: The Way Forward—Part One
* Former Assistant Chief Constable, Essex Police
** Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology, London School of Economics
Policing is accountability: without it the police cannot function adequately in a democracy. During scandals, police have sometimes responded with defensiveness, cover-up, and resistance to oversight. This paper argues that the service should embrace accountability as a core institutional value. Two factors are crucial: operational accountability, on which everything rests, and a culture of accountability. The first part addresses the influences which brought accountability to the front: court cases, legislation, oversight, Home Office initiatives, and professional developments. These place accountability firmly in the centre of the policing agenda.
The second part, to be featured in Issue 4, focuses on operational accountability. The police organisation is a 24-hour emergency agency, and it is vital to have settled national procedures and competent leadership. The paper proposes the Gold, Silver and Bronze command model as standard. Then the service must train for leadership at all levels so that experienced and competent people are in charge. These people should be prepared to ‘carry’ accountability by drawing it upwards within the organisation espousing a culture of accountability. The ideal is a highly professional operation that confidently and proactively faces all forms of accountability with ‘we have the answers: do you have any questions?’