Blaming the wrong people

I follow the local paper online, and add comments now and then when the urge arises. What annoys me is the misguided vilification of public servants, when they have to follow the whims of their senior officers.

There was a story this week about an apparent attempted burglary that police charged the perp with criminal damage- he had broken a ground floor window, but hadn't managed to get in the house, leaving the police to either charge for a relatively safe 'criminal damage' or a less solid 'breaking & entering'.

The online messages were full of spit and bile against police officers (think 'do your job' in a pre-neaderthal grunt, etc), which misses a large point.

The last few governments have, brick by brick, brought in swathes of targets by which to bash public services over the head with. Each target moves around like the wind, being changed every several months to suit political whim.

What happens is that the senior officers of the time are so desperate to reach these targets that they concentrate on the ways to achieve them, rather than doing the best job for the public (this could be applied to the NHS, HMRC, DWP and the rest of the alphabet soup). Whist this occurs those DOING the work become disillusioned because most of them want to do the best job possible, and the moving 'targets' hinder this considerably- yes, some are not great, but that is the same in all areas of work. Most are decent and hard working.. imagine trying to do a good job whilst ignorant people offer hate and vilification.

This specific case mentioned in the story looked like a perfect example, even if it isn't the case in this instance. There is no doubt a target for convictions. The likelihood of getting a conviction for burglary in this instance is much less than a conviction for criminal damage, therefore (to help hit targets) officers are probably instructed to get the most likely results.

There is an element of merit that this is also a better use of public money AND that it is better to get a conviction rather than no conviction, but it is far too weighted in favour of getting quick results.
Whilst this goes on the current government bring in police commissioners so that there is an extra layer of bureaucracy between them and the public when issues with the police arise... so the government of the day are never directly responsible anymore. Neat trick, eh?

So, I'll agree that the public are not best served, but I think people should look higher than those on the street trying to offer a good service. Look at the most senior officers bending over backwards to reach targets, however counter-productive they may be. Look at the newly installed police commissioners also seeking to justify their position, and look to the government who are apparently no longer in full control....

It is myopic and lazy to simply blame those doing the work on the ground.