when does oversight become dysfunctional?
With actual politicians present at the Criminal Justice Inspectorate’s Annual Stakeholder Conference today in Templepatrick[pdf file], including the NIO Security Minister, Paul Goggins MP, the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde was able to concentrate on his official role.. as Chief Constable. And as such he raised a not-unreasonable point
“We are the most accountable police service, probably in the world, and I have no difficulty with that,” Sir Hugh said. “At some stage a question needs to be asked of when does oversight become dysfunctional.”
Of course, there’s an equally valid point.. namely that it is other, apparently dysfunctional, areas of the Criminal Justice System, which require even more oversight.
Do the criminals get to be represented at this conference? After all they are one of the fundamental stakeholders in criminal justice providing a role somewhat similar to bankers in the provision of personal finance or politicians in civic responsibility, i.e. they profit most until caught out.
Maybe we should now turn our oversight towards making them deal with everyday crime in an effective manner. Let’s face it, they aren’t exactly useful in catching burglars and thieves. It’s one thing making sure that the police are representative of society and are fully accountable for their actions, but all that is pointless if they aren’t doing their basic job of catching scum on the run. The implementation of Patten has been a great success thus far, so perhaps it is time to look closer at the day-to-day issues. A bit more cash for the peelers wouldn’t go amiss either in helping address this subject- the whole police college issue has been a joke.