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Policing Advance Access originally published online on December 20, 2007
Policing 2007 1(4):460-471; doi:10.1093/police/pam068
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Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press.

Further Discussion - Opinions

Redefining the Gaps: Connecting Neighbourhood Safety to National Security

Fraser Sampson* and John McNeill**

* E-mail: fraser.sampson@cnpa.pnn.police.uk
** john.mcneill@cnpa.pnn.police.uk

Fraser Sampson is Executive Director of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority and formerly a superintendent and head of the National Police Training Examinations and Assessment Unit. John McNeill has held a range of senior management posts in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), as well as senior posts in the Northern Ireland Prison Service and Non-Governmental Organisations. He is currently Chairman of the Police Authority Audit & Risk Management Committee. In this article, they discuss the attention given to ‘protective services’ within policing strategy, largely prompted by the HM Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) report Closing the Gap; and consider the practical difficulties associated with the identification of performance measures. The connection between neighbourhood security and national security is explored and the authors argue that the issue at stake is less about plugging gaps and more about plugging into a response that can mirror the modality of the threat.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Introduction
 
Among the themes emerging within policing strategy across the United Kingdom, much—if not most—attention is being focussed in the middle. When HM Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) published Closing the Gap1 in 2005, the principal effect was to concentrate the attention and subsequent activity on closing off the now infamous ‘gaps’ that were perceived to have formed in the capability of police forces to provide protective services. The report led to an intense bout of strategic planning activity directed at merging smaller police forces and closing the capability gaps by creating large strategic organisations with a greater critical mass. Technical and legal realities of the policing landscape ultimately prevented the mergers, and the seismic shifting within police forces failed to materialise, leaving the organisational geography largely unaltered. By extension, the strategic lacunae attributed by HMIC to the existing police administrative arrangements also remained unaltered. Not surprisingly, the question of how policing . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Finding the gaps
 

   Policing below national level
 

   The protective services
 

   Civil contingencies
 

   The critical national infrastructure
 

   Policing energy
 

   National demand: local supply
 

   Barriers to success
 

   An organic response
 

   Conclusion
 

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