March 14, 2002
Off-duty police officers from across the UK have staged a mass demonstration outside Parliament against planned reforms of the service.
More than 5,000 officers protested against proposed changes to their pay structure and plans to give police powers to private security guards.
The action comes as Home Secretary David Blunkett announced police numbers were 128,748 - up from 127,231 last September - the highest on record.
Mr Blunkett says he is determined to deliver the security the public wants, but has indicated he may back down on some of the controversial proposals.
He told the BBC he was ‘prepared to compromise’ and did not want to be remembered for failure or confrontation but for ‘managing the service well’ and for a ‘conciliatory approach to find solutions’.
And a Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We cannot do what we want to do in the fight against crime without taking the police with us but that does mean confronting change.’
Civilian powers
Officers have already voted by a 10-1 margin against the reform plans, which would cut their overtime and remove a range of allowances.
The Police Federation, which organised that ballot, is calling on its members to register their ‘frustration’.
Fred Broughton, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said ‘politically drip-fed smear stories’ from the government had angered officers.
‘Police officers are saying to me that they feel they are being under-valued and unfairly criticised.’
There was concern too about proposals to give civilians powers to stop, detain and use ‘reasonable force’ against the public.
So-called community officers would have the power to issue fixed penalty fines, confiscate alcohol and request names and addresses.
They would also have powers to request the removal of abandoned vehicles and to detain people for 30 minutes until police arrived.
Nearly two out of every three people questioned in a Federation-commissioned ICM poll expressed serious reservations about civilians being given police powers.
Police officers are prohibited by law from going on strike but Mr Broughton revealed that three force areas of the federation were calling for a discussion on whether they should campaign to change industrial legislation, possibly with the aim of winning the right to strike.
The government is currently engaged in a formal conciliation process over the reforms row.
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