Police urge end to target culture

LONDON (Reuters) - Frontline police urged the government on Tuesday to change its "target culture" which it said appeared to be more about number-crunching than catching serious criminals.

The Police Federation, which represents 130,000 rank-and-file officers, produced a list of arrests officers were forced to make because of a loss of discretion under pressure to meet targets.

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Officers have detained a child for throwing buns at a bus and a pensioner for trimming a neighbour's hedge too vigorously.

At its annual conference in Blackpool, the federation is to warn that targets are diverting detectives from serious cases, and that judging officers purely on how many arrests, cautions or on-the-spot fines they can deliver is making a mockery of the criminal justice system.

The dossier of incidents includes:

* A man from Cheshire who was cautioned by police for being "found in possession of an egg with intent to throw".

* A child in Kent who removed a slice of cucumber from a sandwich and threw it at another youngster and was arrested because the other child's parents claimed it was assault.

More stupidity can be read here.

What we need is elected police commissioners. The only person that could give the police targets then would be elected police commissioners. The government would have no power over the police so they would be able to get on with the job of protecting society and not arresting people for stupid things.

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