EXCLUSIVE

 

JAMIE had a dream. One day he would be a police officer. The dream was shattered in June when a stranger ordered him into a car, took him to a large building and locked him up.

The 14-year-old had been playing outside his home at 7.30pm when he was taken away.

His mother, who was preparing dinner at the time, realised something was wrong just after 8pm when the phone rang.

It was Rayleigh Police.

“Your son’s in trouble…” said the caller. “…we’ve arrested him.”

His crime?

Playing in the street with a plastic gun that fires a soft ball.

“I couldn’t believe it,” says his mother. “It felt as though he’d been abducted.”

Three months after making a complaint she’s still waiting for an apology, convinced something more sinister lay behind her son’s arrest.

Police officers are applying to leave the force in droves because they say people like Jamie’s mum are probably right.

PC Rultize is one of them. He typifies the mood among officers who have had enough of the job.

Problems began soon after Essex Chief Constable Roger Baker arrived in July, 2005.

At a special press conference on July 4, Mr Baker, said he had a dream, just like Jamie. He demanded 600 arrests in his first week in charge.

His plan was to turn Essex into the best performing force in the country. It was welcomed by virtually every officer under his command.

But then they discovered that trying to run a Rolls Royce police service on a cash-starved budget is too much – even for the ambitious Mr Baker.

Tory-controlled Essex has one of the lowest council tax precepts in the country. As Mr Baker continued to push for better performance and improved figures, the extra resources he needed never materialised. Police morale has begun to slip, sickness rates have soared.

“Every day, phone calls are made to every division to check up how many people are arrested,” explains PC Rultize.

“There’s a set number of people we should be arresting daily. If targets are not met inspectors, sergeants and PCs are questioned.

“It means discretion is going out of the window and we are arresting people for trivial things.

“Baker likes to go on about how he has made the number of arrests go up, but it’s all manipulation of figures.

“And is he really interested in why officers are transferring? If he was running a business he would be out in a week.”

Sources at the Essex Police Federation confirm the drive for more arrests and detections has had a devastating effect on the under-resourced force.

Publicly the Federation refuses to criticise Mr Baker, but it has successfully arranged an open meeting between the chief and all his serving officers for October 30, at Chelmsford HQ.

But while some claim he has not listened hard enough to his staff, it is government - both local and national - that must take most responsibility.

Force accountants estimate that Essex Police could buy in an extra 750 officers if it received as much funding as other counties.

A recruitment drive that large would boost numbers by almost 25 per cent, relieving the pressure on overworked staff and giving Mr Baker the power to get on with the real job - cracking down on even more crime.

But are the spurious arrest figures already undermining his priority?

When he arrived in July, Mr Baker had a personal message for criminals.

“If you are planning on committing crime in Essex bring a toothbrush, because you won’t be going home,” he warned.

Although he delivered immediate crime reductions, many officers believe his continued refusal to relax targets in line with staff shortages and sickness could swing the initiative back towards the criminals.

Officers manning stations in the south of the county, at Rayleigh, Southend, Basildon, Thurrock and Grays report severe staffing gaps in shifts. They claim these shortages represent a public safety risk.

Most week nights and Sundays between midnight and 6am there will be six officers covering the whole of Basildon, Wickford, Pitsea and Laindon. The same goes for Canvey, Rayleigh, Hockley, Benfleet, Rochford, Canewdon, Wakering and Hullbridge – with just six more officers allocated to Southend, Thorpe Bay, Leigh, Eastwood and Shoebury.

Combine this with officers who are taking an average of 3-5 hours to deal with dubious arrests of trivial offenders, and the more serious offenders are inevitably escaping the system.

“It’s the same all over the county,” said a police source. “One major incident in a highly populated area ties up all six officers.

“Unfortunately it will take the serious injury to a police officer or a member of the public for things to change, and by then it will be too late.

“Maybe the public can now see what we are up against.”

Mr Baker had a dream when he arrived in Essex 15 months ago - just like young Jamie.

The 14-year-old doesn’t want to be a police officer any more.

Perhaps as he grows he’ll change his mind. Maybe Mr Baker will change his mind too – about how he goes about creating the best force in Britain that is.

Give your officers a break Mr Baker – demand more cash from government. Then call Jamie and say sorry.

* The names of all police officers in this article, other than Roger Baker’s, have been changed to protect their identity, as has Jamie’s.