Blunkett says SOCA must get real

Former Home Secretary joins the critics of the agency he established to fight serious and organised crime

By John O'Leary

The elite squad established to combat organised crime has become too preoccupied with intelligence-gathering and should get back to conventional policing, according to the man who set it up.

In an interview with Policy Review, David Blunkett said the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) had become “skewed” towards intelligence since he brought it into being as Home Secretary in 2005. The squad, seen by many as an English FBI, was neglecting its primary role as a result.

Mr Blunkett touched on the role of SOCA in his report on police accountability, commissioned by Jacqui Smith, when she was Home Secretary, and published in the summer. Much of the report will find its way into this month’s White Paper on policing, but he is concerned that SOCA may continue to lose its way.

The agency itself claims some notable successes, most recently in forcing up the price of cocaine after a number of major seizures. But Sir Ian Blair, in his autobiography Policing Controversy, dismisses SOCA as unsatisfactory and ineffective.

Mr Blunkett’s report, A People’s Police Force, welcomed the new requirement for police forces to collaborate in regional units dedicated to fighting serious and organised crime. But he believes that SOCA needs to be reshaped, or at least redirected, if it is to play the central role in the drive against national and international crime.

The Sheffield MP plainly still hankers after the national force that he championed as Home Secretary, although he accepts that public opposition makes such a development politically impossible. “The logic in terms of serious criminality, whether it’s e-crime or drugs, is that we have got to have something inside the country that operates across boundaries as well as doing the intelligence,” he says.

“The FBI do that in the United States, although they rub up very strongly against other forces,” he says. “I never wanted SOCA to be called the UK’s FBI but it should be playing that role and it hasn’t yet happened. Criminals don’t respect boundaries of any sort, national or local, and they don’t respect the difference between intelligence and action.”

Mr Blunkett also remains unconvinced by the separation of the Home Office and the Justice Department, which he sees as an obstacle to a “seamless” approach to criminality. “I was never for the separation and I’m still not,” he says. “I don’t think it has been an unmitigated disaster, partly because Jack Straw, as a former Home Secretary, has made it work, but the split is an uneasy one.”

A People’s Police Force was commissioned to address more local concerns, however – in particular proposals for directly-elected police authorities and commissioners. Categorically rejected by Mr Blunkett and his team, the steam has now gone out of the idea to such an extent that even the Tories (previously committed supporters) appear to be having doubts, if only because of practical concerns.

Alan Johnson, the current Home Secretary, will take little convincing on this count. But David Hanson, his crime and policing minister, has been discussing other aspects of the report with Mr Blunkett while the White Paper has been drafted.

Mr Blunkett says: “The issue that caused the most heat when the report was published was the least important in terms of accountability and engagement within the community. What matters is meaningful engagement, not just going through the motions.”

The report contains a series of recommendations designed to bolster confidence in public safety, from independent statistics to reassure local residents to wider partnerships to tackle repeat offenders and more of the preventative measures that have had an impact on burglary and car crime. Data on law and order would be the responsibility of specialists located within local authorities working within parameters set by the UK Statistics Authority.

Police authorities would be retained under the report’s recommendations and, almost cretainly, after the White Paper. But Mr Blunkett wants them to work more closely with local authorities, with councillors forming a bare majority of the members. Appointments would be in the hands of independent selection panels whose only criteria would be relevant skills and competencies.

It is at the neighbourhood level that the report is more radical. Although he acknowledges that previous versions have often been poorly supported, Mr Blunkett pins his faith in community forums. No single model is advocated because of the different requirements of rural and urban areas, but the forums would be the main vehicle for public consultation. Much of the contact would be online, although a different approach might be required in deprived areas, where internet access is limited.

Perhaps the recommendation least likely to appear in the White Paper is for the Government to surrender its power to cap police precepts and nominate forces for reductions in the next financial year. Even Mr Blunkett admits that he is “not holding his breath”, although he insists that the beneficial impact would far outweigh the limited costs.

To find out more about this article, visit: http://davidblunkett.typepad.com/files/a-peoples-police-force.pdf

9 November 2009

John O'Leary. Editor, Policy Review Magazine