Tayside Police Primary Inspection 1999

1 - Organisational and Management Framework

1. Force Structure

1.1 Tayside Police covers a geographical area of some 7500 square kilometres and provides a policing service to about 395,000 people within the local authority areas of Dundee City, Perth and Kinross and Angus. Co-terminus with the local authority boundaries, the three divisional command areas also mirror sheriffdoms and procurator fiscal areas. The service is provided against a contrasting backdrop of densely populated urban areas and sparsely populated rural areas.

1.2 Western Division covering Perth and Kinross is centred on Perth (site of divisional headquarters) and covers the main towns of Perth, Blairgowrie, Crieff, Kinross and Pitlochry. Eastern Division, covering the council area of Angus comprises the six burghs of Arbroath, Brechin, Carnoustie, Forfar, Kirriemuir and Montrose. Divisional Headquarters is located at Forfar. The City of Dundee is policed by Central Division with Headquarters co-located at West Bell Street in the same building as force headquarters.

1.3 The Force Executive comprises the Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable, Assistant Chief Constable and the Head of Corporate Services. The Deputy Chief Constable is responsible for the strategic development of the force, the assistant chief constable for operational direction and the head of corporate services for financial, administrative and human resource services.

Figure 1: Force Structure

1.4 The Head of Corporate Services is the most senior support staff member in Tayside Police. Shortly after the inspection the Chief Constable advised HMIC that the responsibilities of that post are to be extended to include Information Technology and associated management services, under the title of Director of Corporate Services. This move will eventually release one superintendent post from the Information Technology Department, through natural wastage, with a functional replacement at a lower rank sustaining the remaining workload and providing the necessary professional input. The structural change will achieve efficiency savings at an early stage and also long term continuity of professional services. The anticipated financial savings will be directed to operational policing.

1.5 Chief superintendents head the three territorial divisions, strategic management services, force

support group and crime management. The Chief superintendents and the Force Executive constitute the strategic management group, which meets monthly.

1.6 Superintendent's head community safety, IT/Communications, professional standards, force development and career development while senior support staff head the forensic laboratory and human resources. When this group is combined with the strategic management group they make up the force policy group.

2. Executive Structure

2.1 The Force Executive (see paragraph 1.3 above) is seen by staff as a separate entity with a decision-making role but it does not meet formally, maintain an agenda or minutes. The policy group is headed by the Deputy Chief Constable. The Strategic Management Group arose from disquiet by the Superintendents' Association about their ability to influence the strategic direction of the Force. These present arrangements cast some doubt about how and where policy is decided. There is a lack of clarity, accountability and an accessible audit trail. In particular the important role of the Chief Constable in policy decision making lacks clarity. HMIC suggests that this aspect of management control be reconsidered to produce sharper lines of authority and accountability.

3. Divisional Structure

3.1 The current territorial structure is designed to place operational resources in the hands of divisional section inspectors. A level of devolved resource management (e.g. the overtime budgets are held by section inspectors) allows divisional commanders the flexibility to tailor policing to the needs of local communities while still pursuing the overall force objectives.

3.2 The present structure was adopted shortly before the last primary inspection by HMIC (in 1996) although some realignment has since taken place. Six years ago the force devolved a number of functions to divisions including CID and Traffic. The concept was sound but developments with the force command and control system, the increasing importance of community safety strategies and an unacceptable vehicle accident rate on the roads network suggested the need for some change. An internal review led by force consultancy (see paragraph 7) examined overall structure. A number of recommendations led to the creation of a force support group, commanded by a chief superintendent to oversee the strategic direction of road policing, community safety and the implementation of a new command and control system. Communications and information technology have migrated from strategic management services to the force support group and data protection has moved to strategic management services.

3.3 CID and community safety officers are under the control of the divisional commander of the area in which they operate. Movements between sections, or to specialist functions follow consultation with divisional command and must comply with the force policies on tenure and fair selection. HQ personnel manage this.

3.4 The 1997 HMIC Review Inspection report on Tayside Police supported the intention to move CID officers from divisional headquarters to larger section stations within Central Division. At Downfield section station HMIC noted that CID officers were now working from there but direct line management remains with divisional CID supervisors. Section inspectors have a significant input into the day to day tasking of these individuals. Officers continue to work from divisional headquarters on the investigation of crime matters affecting the division as a whole. In Eastern and Western Divisions section inspectors do not have line management responsibility for the day to day working of CID officers however the divisional chief inspector (operations) and the divisional crime manager (a detective chief inspector or detective inspector) will ensure that requests for assistance are prioritised and resources deployed to best advantage.

3.5 It is within the remit of the divisional chief superintendents to revise structures within their own divisions. A recent example was evidenced in Eastern Division where four shift sergeants posts within the divisional control room were re-deployed to the areas of community safety, divisional training and crime management. The remaining sergeant assumed overall responsibility for the control room, CCTV, public enquiry office at divisional headquarters and the court teams at both Forfar and Arbroath. At a time when call handling is being centralised within a new force control room and the workload on divisional control rooms reduced HMIC supports this change.

4. Departmental Structure

4.1 Headquarters crime management has a responsibility for major criminal investigations including the assignment of sufficient resources to enquiries after consultation and negotiation with divisional commanders. A forcewide perspective on divisional specialist areas within crime management is retained within headquarters crime management support departments and staff are available to advise on policy and factors which can impact on resourcing and personnel matters within divisions.

4.2 The recent formation of the force support group brings a return to the central co-ordination and control of the traffic enforcement and management function. The creation of the force support group and the management of that change could have been handled more effectively. The patchy effectiveness of the consultation, including with some senior management, a poor implementation plan and the general lack of information all contributed to this position. This and other examples are indicative of a need for improved communications inside the force (see also chapter 1 paragraph 5.5) and emphasised the issue about improving policy management (see chapter 1 paragraph 2.1).

5. Media Services

5.1 Media Services are located within force consultancy, which is under the command of a chief superintendent and comprises the force information office and the force audio/visual unit. The former is based at force headquarters and the latter at Baluniefield (force training centre). The force information office has two members of staff. The support staff member was employed as the assistant information officer until November 1998 when on the transfer to other duties of the force information officer, an inspector; she assumed temporary control of the department. To support her a temporary inspector was appointed but had no previous media experience. The post of force information officer remains vacant and a degree of uncertainty exists within the department, which is unsatisfactory.

5.2 Close contact is maintained with local journalists and daily contact with the local radio station who are keen to broadcast information from the force about crime and other matters. Contact between the Force Executive and the force information officer is mainly driven by real time activities (eg incidents, press reports, press enquiries etc) and there would be advantage in the information officer being formally involved with management meetings. The position would be improved by the creation of a corporate media strategy, which the force presently lacks. Departmental objectives and action plans exist but the measurement of performance within this area of work is weak.

5.3 Protocols have been developed for certain situations to which the department may have to respond (for example missing persons).

5.4 The two technicians within the force audio visual unit job share a single post. In November 1998 they moved from the control of the force training department, where much of their time was spent preparing promotional video work, to media services where over 50% of their time is now involved in the conversion of CCTV video footage into a format suitable for presentation as evidence in court. Staff felt that the reasons for the change to the new management structure were not fully explained and some isolation from line management support is experienced as it is now based at force headquarters.

5.5 In reality the force had recognised some of the shortcomings about communication and meeting structures and a review has been undertaken by force consultancy. The distribution of agendas, papers and minutes is an important ingredient of communication. HMIC suggests that subject to the occasional constraints of confidentiality, policy group agendas and papers might usefully be seen in advance by staff representative groups.

5.6 HMIC recommends that a corporate communications strategy (dealing with external and internal matters) is developed and that a head to lead corporate communications is appointed at an early point. This person to be present at strategic management level meetings as communication is a key part of the decision making process.