POLICE chiefs haved pledged to increase the number of bobbies seen on the beat after being slammed by inspectors.
West Midlands Police was branded poor, the lowest score, on one of ten “pledges” demanded by ministers.
This was to ensure local officers “are visible and on your patch at times when they will be most effective and when you tell us you most need them”.
They would only be called away “from neighbourhood business more than is absolutely necessary” and spend at least 80 per cent of their time in local areas.
In a report, West Midlands Police Authority said it was putting in place new shift patters and a “revised tasking process”.
The low score was because of the “absence of a clear abstraction policy”.
It also pledged a “resource management role on LPU (C/Insp)” and “freeing up space – ‘Bad bureaucracy’. e.g. Mobile data.”
The paper did not explain what these mean. A further demanded area of improvement was “use of acronyms and police jargon to describe issues”.
It pledged “proactive management of the use of terminology”.
One the other nine pledges, eight were rated as fair and one as good. This was to “acknowledge any dissatisfaction” within 24 hours of it being reported.
The report says: “West Midlands Police consider the assessment by HMIC to be an accurate reflection of the delivery of the Policing Pledge at the time of the inspection during July 2009.
“Since that time there have been significant steps forward in improving delivery of the pledge.”
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